


Darkness Reigns

by Jcapasso916



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-29 03:06:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 44,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6356458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jcapasso916/pseuds/Jcapasso916
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sam and Dean are cornered by Amara, an unlikely savior comes to their aid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is set before Sam goes into the cage to talk to Lucifer and after Amara escapes from Crowley.

Sam was cursing himself for letting Dean talk him into coming after Amara without a game plan. He got the fact that there isn’t really any such thing as a viable plan when dealing with the sister of god. It’s not like they have any weapon that can even slow her down, but he still thought they should have waited until they could find something before confronting her. Dean’s argument about how hard it was to find her in the first place and so not wanting to pass up the opportunity did make some sense though. They had gone into this with the wild hope of getting a lucky shot, but not expecting more than figuring out a weakness or something they could exploit later. 

As with all half-baked Winchester plans, it landed them into pretty big trouble though. Amara had Dean under some sort of spell that just had him watching her in something of a daze as she used her powers to pin Sam to the wall by his throat. Just as Sam started seeing the spots around the edges of his vision, she suddenly flew a few feet away and skidded on her side across the floor. Sam wondered for a moment if he really had lost consciousness and was dreaming because he was certain that the golden haired archangel standing with righteous fury in between him and Amara was dead. 

“You stay the hell away from him,” Gabriel growled. He wouldn’t allow anything in his countenance to betray the cold terror he felt right now. The last time he had gone up against her he had barely survived, and that was with three other archangels and god at his side, but he had died for Sam Winchester before and he would damn well do it again if he had to. 

Amara picked herself up with a light laugh. “Well if it isn’t little Gabriel. Last time I saw you, you were barely old enough to carry that little sword you wielded against me. Took a good chunk out of your wing too if I remember correctly. How’d that heal up by the way?” she asked smugly. 

Gabriel was motioning to Sam to grab Dean and leave. He would have to keep her talking long enough for them to escape. He pushed the memories of the last time he had died for Sam, where he had gone in with much the same plan, out of his head. He couldn’t afford the distraction. “It healed up just fine thanks,” Gabriel sneered. “How was your little vacation?” 

Sam too was remembering how eerily similar this was to the last time they had seen the archangel even as he grabbed Dean’s arm and pulled him towards the door. Before they could get out of it though, Amara waved her hand and it slammed shut. “Please. Stay,” she said mock sweetly. “I’ll be with you two shortly.”

“The hell you will,” Gabriel snarled placing himself between her and them once again. This was rapidly getting out of hand. He needed a bigger distraction. 

“What’s this? Little Gabriel defending the puny little humans? My brother must have trained you well. Sit puppy,” she taunted with a laugh.

He well remembered how much of a hothead she could be if she was pushed so he pushed and hoped he could get her angry enough for her hold on the shield over the door to falter. “At least I didn’t betray him and force him to lock me away in the void like you,” he snapped and then so did she. 

Amara threw out her hands and Gabriel hit the floor, writhing, as a piercing scream was pulled from his lips. It felt like every nerve ending in his body, both vessel and true form, were on fire. He managed to form some words through his scream though and said, “Sam! Run!”

It was a good thing he did too since Sam had been frozen from the moment the first bloodcurdling scream was pulled from the archangel. Dean had been knocked out of his stupor, Amara’s hold on both him and the door breaking as she threw her power at Gabriel and Dean grabbed Sam’s arm and physically hauled him from the room. “Dean! We can’t just leave Gabriel…like that,” Sam protested. 

“Look. Sam. You were right. We never should have gone after her without a plan. If we go back in there what the hell are we going to do? We can’t stop her. We can’t even slow her down.”

“But Gabriel…” Sam didn’t think he could let the archangel die for them. Not again. The first time was bad enough. As incredibly annoying and frustrating as he found the irascible archangel, as soon as he realized what Gabriel had been trying to do with the mystery spot, and understood his point of view with tv land, much as he disagreed, he couldn’t help but feel some level of fondness for him. 

“We’ll get somewhere safe and then summon him away from her. That’s all we can do,” Dean promised. Gabriel had earned Dean’s respect when he heroically sacrificed himself for them after all, and now here he was doing it again. Cas had told him that Metatron may have managed to resurrect him, but Dean just brushed it off as another trick when the only proof Cas had to go on was an eye waggle. It seemed the seraph was right though. And more than that, Gabriel was still looking out for them. He had every intention of ripping the archangel a new one for not showing himself, but that was later. 

All through Sam’s protests and Dean’s refusal of said protests, Dean didn’t slow his pace as he dragged Sam for the exit. He knew they needed to be under heavy wards before they pulled Gabriel in so that Amara wouldn’t be able to follow and it would take less time to make it the three hours back to the bunker than it would to try and cast new wards over somewhere closer, even if they knew what kind of wards would keep her out. As it was they were just banking on hope that the bunker’s wards would work, but it was the most heavily warded place on the planet so it was their best bet.

They were both a mass of jitters all the way back to the bunker. Neither of them liked the archangel much, but they didn’t not like him either. He was more like an old acquaintance that you think of fondly. Either way, neither of them liked leaving him to that kind of torture and hoped that they weren’t too late with the summoning. They hoped he would still be alive…and sane. Amara likely wouldn’t take their escape very well and take it out on Gabriel as well as whatever he said to set her of to begin with. 

Dean barreled the car down the tunnel driveway to the garage and both of them were out of the car nearly before it came to a complete stop and heading inside at a dead run. Sam was more familiar with their ingredient storage so Dean headed in to start drawing the sigils they would need while Sam gathered the ingredients. They just hoped that summoning an archangel would work the same as summoning a seraph. If not, they would have to try and see if Cas could help. 

It took them half an hour to get the summoning ready, which was about three and a half hours too long as far as they were concerned, but they managed it and despite their voices breaking slightly at different points during the incantation, they soon had a twitching and whimpering archangel lying at their feet with tear-tracks running down his face, fresh tears still flowing in their wake.


	2. Chapter 2

Amara saw the archangel disappear in front of her very eyes and cursed. She had been under the impression that all of the archangels were gone. At least it was the weakest one remaining. He couldn’t hurt her, none of the archangels could alone, but especially not him. He could make things difficult for her though. He had already cost her the Winchesters who were quickly becoming a thorn in her side. Perhaps she should consider not playing with them anymore and just disposing of them. Well the younger one anyway. The older one would be hers and she had been telling the truth. She could no more hurt him then he could her. The younger one was fair game though, and when he was gone, Dean would have nothing left. Nothing except her and she would make him hers…for good this time. But first she had to get that stupid archangel out of the way. Gabriel would pay for his interference. 

 

“Gabriel!” Sam cried as both Winchesters rushed to his side. As soon as Sam touched his shoulder though he screamed and started flailing and they both jumped back to hopefully avoid hurting him more. 

Dean pulled out his phone to call Cas. “Hey buddy. How far away are you?” Dean asked worriedly. There was a pause for Cas to answer. “Well we could use some help here.” Another pause. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Another pause. “Thanks man. See you soon.” Dean put his phone away and turned to Sam. “He’ll be here in an hour.”

“We can’t just leave him in the middle of the floor like that,” Sam protested. 

“We don’t know what she did to him. Maybe it’s not safe to move him,” Dean pointed out. Sam could, reluctantly, see his point, but no way was he leaving Gabriel alone. If he snapped out of it, he would find himself in a strange place and Sam was determined to make sure he saw a friendly face. Well reasonably friendly given their past encounters, but better than nothing. Sam plopped himself on the floor next to Gabriel to wait for Cas. Dean rolled his eyes and headed out. He felt for the guy…er…archangel, but he wasn’t sitting on the floor for an hour for no reason. 

Sam, for lack of anything better to do, just started talking to Gabriel, hoping to lure him out of it. He had no idea how much of what he was saying was heard, but that wasn’t the point. Nor was what he was saying as he just told Gabriel about what they had been up to, described the bunker, asked him why he never told them he was alive, and just kept a constant chatter going right up until he heard footsteps coming back. 

Dean walked into the room, but Cas stumbled into the doorway. “Gabriel,” he breathed out unsure what to feel. There was happiness that his brother was still alive, sorrow for the position he was currently in, fear that he wouldn’t recover, confusion as to what happened to him, and sadness that Gabriel hadn’t come to him before. For an angel who was still trying to get used to feelings he found himself completely overwhelmed. “What happened to him?” 

“Amara,” was all the explanation Sam gave. 

“How? Why?” Cas asked. 

“I don’t know why. She had us dead to rights. Dean was firmly under her spell and she was choking me. I was almost unconscious when Gabriel flies in and distracts her long enough for us to escape. We raced back here and summoned him and he’s been like this ever since,” Sam explained as much as he knew. 

Dean had more to add that Sam apparently hadn’t thought to. “She did something to him. He was writhing on the ground screaming when we left. It was…” Dean trailed off, not having the words to explain. 

“She flayed his grace,” Cas said softly as he pinpointed the problem. At the looks from the other two he realized that they wanted a little more explanation. “Imagine every single nerve ending in your body being set aflame as your skin is peeled from your body.”

Sam gasped as his eyes snapped back to Gabriel and filled with tears. Dean just tensed up where he stood and you could see the veins in his jaw and neck pulsing, fists balled at his sides. “Can we do anything?” Sam asked helplessly. 

“He is probably still very sensitive to touch, but without my wings I cannot move him without touching him. He would be far more comfortable in a bed though,” Cas told them just as helplessly. 

“Well there’s nothing for it then. We’ll have to move him by hand,” Dean said as he stepped forward and motioned Sam to help him. They would touch him as little as possible but it would be more pain for a minute for less pain until he snapped out of it. 

Sam nodded and stood and they each placed an arm under an armpit and hauled him up, half dragging him to the nearest bedroom which happened to be the one next to Sam’s. They deposited him as quickly and gently as possible in the bed, doing their best to ignore his cries of pain. “How long…” Sam asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer. 

“I do not know,” Cas said apologetically. 

“But he will come out of it right?” Dean asked. 

“I do not know,” Cas reiterated. 

Dean gave a terse nod and turned on his heel and left the room, unable to just stand there anymore. He headed down to the makeshift shooting range they had set up. 

“I will sit with him for a while,” Cas offered. Sam wasn’t sure if he wanted to leave, though he couldn’t exactly pinpoint why. Gabriel wouldn’t be alone, and he would likely feel better waking up with his brother next to him than Sam, but Sam just nodded as well as he left the room too. The men of letters had a lot of things in their library that Cas had never heard of or even known was possible. There might be something there to help Gabriel. 

It was a few hours before Sam came into the room with a book and held I out to Cas. “Do you think this might help?” 

Cas perused the page for a moment before he gave a little shrug. “Normally I would say no. Such a spell would not have any effect on an archangel, but given the current state of his grace, it is possible that it may provide some relief, likely not as much as you are hoping though.”

“That’s okay Cas. Even if it only helps a little I’ll call it a win,” Sam said with a humorless smile as he stepped out to gather the necessary ingredients. Half an hour later the spell had been cast, and it did have an effect, though like Cas had suspected, not as much as he had hoped. The whimpers had stopped and he had stopped twitching and even relaxed a fraction, but the pain was still evident in the tension of his shoulders and the tightness around his eyes, and instead of being splayed out he had curled up in the fetal position. It was still better than it was though so he would take it. 

“It seems to have helped a bit,” Cas seemed surprised that the numbing spell worked as much as it had. When Sam settled into the chair, Cas realized that he wasn’t intending to leave again and so the seraph headed out to look for the other Winchester. 

He found him rather quickly and stood back, knowing that Dean had noticed him come in. There wasn’t much that escaped him when he was in this type of mood. Once Dean had emptied his weapon again he set it down. He kept his back to the seraph as he spoke with his head bowed. “He came for us Cas. He put himself directly in her path to get us out of there…again. It was Lucifer all over again.” Dean couldn’t get it out of his head how horribly they had treated Gabriel. Granted at the time they had their reasons, but they had never given the archangel any reason to protect them. Any reason to give a flying fuck what happened to them. In fact, they had given him the opposite, justified or not, but he just kept throwing himself into danger to protect them. The gratitude that Dean felt towards him was weighted down with the guilt and sadly the hunter was no stranger to that feeling. “He tried to tell us then that he couldn’t take on Lucifer. He knew that he would die and he just walked in there anyway to give us a distraction to get out and he did it again today. He had to have known that he couldn’t take her on. He…he threw himself at that to save us. To give us a chance to escape…again. Why would he do that Cas? What did we ever do to deserve…” he trailed off as he choked up. 

“Perhaps, like me, he sees something in the two of you. Something worth protecting,” Cas suggested, not knowing if such a statement would make the hunter feel better or worse, but having nothing else to offer him. 

“How…how is he?” Dean asked. 

“He is better. Sam found a spell to ease at least some of his pain.” Dean nodded gratefully and picked his gun up again and started reloading it. Cas took the hint to leave him alone. 

The seraph headed back upstairs and stopped outside Gabriel’s room when he heard Sam speaking softly to the archangel. He decided not to intrude on the moment and instead went to the library to continue the research that Sam had started. Perhaps he too could find something to help his brother.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam barely left Gabriel’s side, Cas barely left the library, and Dean just did his best to keep busy for the next couple days until a twitch of movement caught Sam’s eyes. Gabriel was waking up. Sam ran to the door and yelled down the hall. “GUYS! He’s waking up!”

“For the love of my father not so loud,” Gabriel groaned as both hands went to the sides of his head. 

“I can think of a few things I’d like to do to your father,” Dean grumbled as he came into the room. 

“Gotta get in line there Deano,” Gabriel quipped with something approximating a smile. “Did anyone get the number of that bus?” 

“What bus brother?” Cas asked curiously, head tilted to the side. 

“Nothing Cassie,” Gabriel said wearily. 

“I’ll explain later,” Dean said out of the side of his mouth. 

“How are you feeling Gabriel?” Sam asked worriedly. 

“Raw,” Gabriel said with a wince as he had shifted position slightly. 

“Is there anything we can do?” Sam asked. 

“I wouldn’t say no to something sweet to eat,” Gabriel said hopefully and Dean, ever looking for something to do, headed out to find him something. 

Sam couldn’t hold it in anymore and just had to ask, “What the hell did you think you were doing back there?” He did manage to keep the volume down, thankfully for Gabriel. 

“Saving your ass, Samsquatch. And it seems I succeeded,” he almost managed a smirk that time, but Sam wasn’t amused. 

Sam sputtered at that for a moment. He had known that really, but hearing it put so bluntly and so matter-of-factly caught him off guard. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected. Probably excuses about how it wasn’t for them. Some reason that he had a personal stake in the fight that was required to be settled at that exact moment. Something to deflect the question, but not open admission. He was saved from finding a response as Dean took that opportunity to re-enter the room and hand Gabriel a large piece of pie. 

“Thank heavens. Pie. You’re a lifesaver, Deano,” Gabriel sighed happily before wincing as he attempted to sit up to eat it. He didn’t dare even try using his grace at the moment. It would be like pouring gasoline on a fire. Sam reached out as if to help him but Gabriel said, “Don’t!” Sam looked a little taken aback at that so Gabriel rushed to explain. “My skin still burns. I appreciate the gesture. Really, but it would do more harm than good.” 

Sam nodded in understanding. Once Gabriel was eating, Dean felt free to ask a question. “So what do we do about the darkness?” 

Only the fact that it was pie and that he couldn’t just snap up more kept Gabriel from spitting it out at that. He knew the Winchesters…at least as far as they related to him and he knew what that question meant. “I just threw myself on the sacrificial altar…again…to save your asses, and you want to throw me back in the ring? I don’t think so. Find another shield,” he said bitingly. “Why’d you even bother pulling me out in the first place.”

“He didn’t mean it like that, Gabriel,” Sam assured him, shooting Dean a look who nodded profusely. Neither of them could blame Gabriel for thinking that though. The last time they had seen him they were all but ordering him to take on Lucifer for them. Granted they intended for him to win and ignored all of his hints that he wouldn’t, but Gabriel wouldn’t see things that way. “He just meant that maybe with your help we can find something that will take her out. Not that we intend for you to do it, or even help any more than you want to.”

“Well I don’t want to. It’s a fool’s errand. She can’t be stopped,” Gabriel snapped. 

“You’ve said that before,” Sam said with a wry smile. 

“Yeah, well, this time’s different. Even Winchester luck can’t help this situation. Even my father and two archangels couldn’t take her on. It’s the whole reason Raphael and I existed in the first place,” Gabriel said bitterly.

“Wait…you mean…” Dean wasn’t sure where he was going with that question. 

“I mean that they were the perfect, happy, family just the three of them until there was an enemy that they couldn’t fight so father created a couple new soldiers to throw at her.” 

Sam could tell that it was something that had been eating at Gabriel for a long time and struggled for a moment with how to get him to talk about it before he made an attempt. “She implied that you were young…” he left it to Gabriel to fill in the blanks. 

“Yeah. I was. Too young. If I had to give a human equivalent I would say about ten years old. From the moment I came into existence I trained. Raphael and I both. He took to it like a duck to water and developed a cruel streak a mile wide, but not weak little baby Gabriel,” he sneered. “I didn’t want to fight. I was a coward even back then.”

Sam found himself understanding Gabriel more and more. To be forced to fight from the moment of birth, despite not wanting to. Being thrown into a dangerous situation by people that should have cared for you and protected you. It was eerily similar to Sam’s own life, and the whole Lucifer business must have just felt like a repeat to him. 

Gabriel confirmed it as he continued. “But it was my duty. It was my reason for being. I had to help save the world.” 

Sam wasn’t sure anymore if he was talking about the fight with the darkness or the fight with Lucifer, or both. He definitely understood Gabriel’s hostility towards them now, but that just made him even more confused as to why he would save them again. “You were hurt in the fight,” Sam said hoping for some elaboration. 

“Of course I was hurt. I had no business being there in the first place,” he snapped. “I was taken into the darkness and it was…there was no light and no sound and no feeling. It was cold…so cold. All I had ever known was light and warmth. Lucifer yanked me out and pushed her back, but I lost a chunk of my wing in the process. A piece of my grace. Lucifer fixed my wing, but he couldn’t give me back my lost grace, and once the battle was over, Father didn’t see the point. I had served my purpose. So I wasn’t as strong as my brothers. I never was anyway, but now there was a noticeable difference and maybe he liked it that way. Maybe he wanted everyone who saw me to know that I was less than them. I don’t know.”

Sam started to reach out a hand to comfort Gabriel, but pulled himself back in time. “I’m sorry Gabriel. That you had to go through that then, that we pushed you into facing Lucifer, that you had to step in to save us now. You shouldn’t have had to do any of that.”

“Don’t you dare pity me Winchester. I may be weak for an archangel, but I can take you out any day of the week,” Gabriel glared at Sam. 

“Nobody pities you, Gabriel. But Sam’s right. You’ve been pushed into things you shouldn’t have to do. We all have,” Dean stepped in. “Now I’m not asking you to go toe to toe with her again. As much as it pains me to say it, we’d rather have you alive and kicking, but there has to be something you can do about this. About her.” 

“There isn’t. The only way to get rid of her is if Father gets off his ass and pops over and makes a bunch of new archangels to take her on and I wouldn’t hold my breath for that.” Sam and Dean snorted derisively in unison. The idea that god would actually get off his ass to help them was pretty ludicrous at this point. 

“The men of letters were geniuses. They’ve found ways to do a lot of things that Cas has said was impossible. Maybe there’s something we can find that can help. Or something that can give us an idea for something we can piece together. I don’t know. We have to try,” Sam spoke up. 

Gabriel narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. It was obvious that the morons weren’t going to give up and if he had to step in between them and Amara again, he doubted he would survive. Hell, he couldn’t believe he’d survived this time. “I’ll make a deal with you idiots,” Gabriel said and once he was sure that all eyes were on him he said, “I will help you research. I will help you find whatever we can possibly find that might help, but only if you swear to me, here and now, that you will not go anywhere near Amara unless we can figure out a plan that has at least half a chance of succeeding.”

Sam thought about it for a minute. Between the resources here at the men of letters and everything that Gabriel would be able to get to in all of time and space once he could use his grace again, they might actually have a shot at this. He wasn’t so sure about the at least half a chance part. Most of their plans had at best a quarter chance and still succeeded, but it was either that or continue on their own and risk never ending it or dying trying, or worse, taking Gabriel with them. “Deal,” Sam said with a firm nod.

Dean had the same thoughts as Sam and had no difficulty agreeing as well. “Good. Now get out. I need to rest,” Gabriel snapped as he lay back down, having already finished his pie. He had revealed far more than he had intended and now his emotions were as raw as his grace and his body and he just wanted to be alone and wasn’t in the mood to be nice about it. 

The rest were nice enough to ignore his rudeness and headed out, though Sam hesitated at the door, but after a glare from Gabriel, followed Dean and Cas out.


	4. Chapter 4

It was evening before anyone saw Gabriel again. Sam kept looking nervously at the door, like he wanted to go check on him, but he didn’t want to risk getting his head bit off and/or disturbing him while he was sleeping. When he stepped out of the library to get something to drink and saw Gabriel hobbling down the hall, one hand braced on the wall, he rushed over and barely stopped himself before touching him. “What are you doing out of bed? You should be resting,” Sam admonished him. 

“Don’t treat me like some delicate little flower,” Gabriel snapped. “I’m fine and I’m sick and tired of staring at those stupid ugly walls.”

Sam could tell that Gabriel was wound tighter than a two dollar watch so didn’t dare even try to send him back to bed. “Okay. TV or library,” he asked. 

“How many channels you got?” Gabriel asked curiously, annoyed that he even had to ask. Until his nerve endings settled down he didn’t dare try to use his grace to get more channels or food or anything at all really. 

Sam shrugged. “As many as the antenna gets us.”

Gabriel groaned. Not even any cable? What were they living in the stone age? “Library,” he grumbled. “Might as well get started on something useful.”

Sam nodded and looked torn for a moment before he rushed off, leaving Gabriel to make his own way there. Just before Gabriel sat down the door opened again and Sam and Dean were heaving a large recliner in the room. Gabriel huffed, but didn’t say anything. He hadn’t been looking forward to sitting in those hard wooden chairs. They sat it down at the end of the table, giving it room to recline underneath the table. “Need help finding anything?” Sam asked. Gabriel turned a glare on him as he continued shuffling towards the shelves. “I just meant because you don’t know how things are organized in here,” the hunter tried to backtrack. 

“I’ll figure it out,” Gabriel said. He knew that he was being an ass, but he felt like crap. There was nothing he hated more than being vulnerable and being treated like it was even worse. Being treated like it by Sam was practically his own version of hell and if snapping at him got him to back off a bit then that’s what he would do. 

Gabriel knew that finding anything relating to the darkness in this library would be all but impossible. It had been locked away long before man had ever even been a glimmer of a thought, but maybe if he read over some of their magical theories it might spark and idea or give him a direction to look once he was up and around again, so he pulled a few books on the subject and made it back to the recliner, pointedly ignoring the worried looks Sam sent him as he lowered himself gingerly into the chair. 

Thankfully the worried looks from Sam pretty much stopped once he was seated comfortably and reading a book. Sam headed out a little while later, presumably for dinner and when he came back he had a huge piece of chocolate cake and a milkshake that he put in front of Gabriel with a hopeful smile. Gabriel snorted in amusement, but mumbled a quick thanks and managed a smile back at the hunter as he set his book to the side and dug in. 

After a few minutes Sam, put his own book to the side. “Gabriel, can we talk?” 

Having gone so long without the pitying looks or over the top concern, he was in a much better mood. “Bout what Samsquatch.”

“I know you hate being here with us, but…”

Gabriel cut him off. “Shit Sam, is that what you think?” 

“Well it seems like it,” Sam muttered. 

Gabriel let out a heavy sigh. It looked like he was going to have to actually come out and say it. “It’s not that I hate being here. Hell after everything that happened at that hotel, you two are pretty much the closest things I have to friends, as sad as that is to say.” Sam gave him an encouraging smile. “I just hate being treated like I’m fragile. I am not weak and I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself,” he said firmly, daring the hunter to disagree with him. 

“Jesus Gabriel,” Sam said in shock. “No one thinks you’re weak or fragile. None of us could have ever stood up to what you did and come out in one piece, but you are hurt. And you got hurt saving us. We just want to know you’re okay. We want to help.”

“I’m fine,” Gabriel snapped. 

Sam sighed. Of course it wouldn’t be this easy. “How about we make a deal…” 

“Another one?” Gabriel asked wryly. 

Sam ignored him though and soldiered on. “We’ll stop hovering and trying to help, if you promise to actually ask if you do need help.” They both knew that Sam was the only one really hovering, so he could make that deal for all of them. 

Gabriel couldn’t help the sneer that crossed his face at the thought of asking for help. He didn’t do asking for help. If he couldn’t do it himself, he just did without. One look at Sam though made him realize that the hunter wasn’t going to give up on this idea and if it got him peace in the meantime… “Fine,” Gabriel reluctantly agreed. “But you can stop pretending to care.”

“You think I’m pretending?” 

“You hate me. You always have,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“No. I haven’t,” Gabriel gave him a skeptical look. “Ok for a while there, after the mystery spot, yeah. I hated you. But then I realized why you did it. What you were trying to prevent. What you were trying to teach me. Yeah, you had a pretty shitty way of going about it, but at least you tried something.”

“Obviously not enough. Even after you released Lucifer you still didn’t learn,” Gabriel said heatedly. 

“What do you…” Sam started confused. 

“You still couldn’t let go, and now look what you’ve caused. Amara is loose in the world, thanks to you two being willing to sacrifice anything and everything for each other,” he snapped. 

Sam’s guilt came rushing back to the forefront. Gabriel was right. “I know. And I tried. Really. When Dean got sucked into purgatory, I let go. I moved on. Found a girl and a dog. Made a life for myself, but then he was back and I lost it all. I just…I think I could handle losing him to death now. Not easily, but I could move on. I could let go, but watching him become…that. Seeing him turned into something so…dark and evil because of that damn mark…I couldn’t let that go. I couldn’t watch that. I know I was wrong. I knew that something bad would happen. I didn’t know how bad, but…I just couldn’t.”

Gabriel sighed. He could understand that, unfortunately. Maybe he could get through to Sam this time and hopefully avoid any more of these types of events in the future. “Look. I get it Sammy. Really. You think it was easy for me to watch Lucifer being corrupted by the mark? You think it was easy for any of us? It was her last form of revenge. Turning the mark into a curse. She hoped that eventually someone would take it on that wanted so badly to be rid of it that they would risk releasing her into the world and she got her wish. I had to watch Lucifer turn. Abel had to watch Cain turn. It’s never easy, but none of them could have done half as much damage as Amara. Not even Lucifer, but that’s why he was locked away anyway.”

Sam nodded guiltily. “I screwed up Gabriel. I know that, but I still can’t bring myself to regret it.”

“Then you need to get out of this business. You and your brother both. Stop hunting and stay away from the supernatural world, because as long as you’re willing to sacrifice the entire world for each other, this is going to keep happening.”

“You’re right. I know you’re right, it’s just…”

“Just nothing. Make a choice. You want to save people, fine, but you’re killing more than you’re saving this way. It’d be better for everyone if you just leave the saving people to other people.”

“I…I’ll think about it. I promise.” 

Neither of them moved again for a few hours, occasionally commenting on a passage in whatever book they were reading. Gabriel was still pretty wrung out though and eventually he found himself getting tired. He put his feet down and tried a few times to get up before chancing a glance up at Sam. He saw the hunter cutting his eyes to him and then pointedly looking back down. At least he was trying to live up to his end of their deal. “C’mere Samsquatch,” Gabriel said with a sigh. Damn chair was trying to swallow him. Sam came over and started to reach for him to help him up, but Gabriel shook his head. What he had in mind would hurt enough, he didn’t need the hunter pawing at him. “Just hold out your arm,” he said apologetically. Sam did so and Gabriel gripped it tightly and started to pull himself up, helped along by Sam raising his arm in the process. Once he was up he grumbled a thanks and started shuffling himself out the door. Sam couldn’t help the warm smile that followed the archangel out the door. They were making progress.


	5. Chapter 5

Once Gabriel was in bed, Sam went looking for Dean who was lounging in his room listening to music. “Hey Dean. Can we talk?” 

“Is it gonna be a chick-flick talk?” he asked warily. 

Sam rolled his eyes, “No.” 

“Okay,” Dean said sitting up and turning the music down. “Then sure.”

“I don’t think we should hunt anymore,” Sam dropped the bomb. 

“What? Where is this coming from?” Dean asked shocked. 

“It’s just, the way we keep making sacrifices for each other…how many times now have we nearly ended the world trying to save each other?” 

“Isn’t this the same argument I made after we released the darkness?” Dean said confused. He could clearly remember this conversation going the other way last time. 

“Yeah. It is. And you were right. I will never stop trying to save you, and you will never stop trying to save me and too many people are getting hurt in the process. We need to leave it all behind.”

“I was right, but so were you. Amara is our problem now. We caused it. We set her free. We need to clean it up. We can’t just ignore it,” Dean pointed out. 

“Yeah. I get that. But she’s it. We work on getting her out of the way and then we’re done,” Sam said hoping that his brother wouldn’t argue with him on this. 

Dean thought for a minute. “Where is this coming from? Why now?” he asked curiously. The timing couldn’t be a coincidence. 

“Gabriel. We got to talking and he pointed out that this situation is just like Lucifer and will keep happening if we don’t start making some changes.”

“I pointed that out too Sammy,” Dean said wearily. 

“I know, but at the time I wasn’t really in the right frame of mind to listen. And how much damage has already come from not listening to Gabriel? I couldn’t just blow off what he said. Especially not now, so I thought about it and he’s right. And you were right.”

“Alright Sammy. Amara and that’s it.” Dean looked thoughtful for a few minutes and Sam couldn’t help but ask what he was thinking so hard about. “Lisa and Ben,” Dean admitted. “Wondering if Cas could restore their memories.”

Sam snorted. “And you really think they’ll ever forgive you for getting him to erase them in the first place?” It was harsh maybe, but it had to be said. 

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Dean said defeated. 

“Look. I didn’t think it was a good idea then and I still don’t think it was a good idea. Whether you want them back or not, you should still get Cas to restore their memories.”

Dean nodded sadly. He had been in a really bad place back then, and he knew that he never should have done it, but at the time it had seemed like the best option. If they were really getting out…if this was really going to happen…he couldn’t help but hope that he could get them back. “You’re really sure about this, Sammy? You’re not gonna change your mind and try to go back to hunting later? Because I think we’ve established that either we are both out or we’re both in.”

“I’m sure, Dean. I’m tired. I’m tired of screwing up. I want a life where my mistakes don’t cause the death of hundreds of people or the end of the world.”

“Okay. Good. So Amara and done,” Dean confirmed with a nod which was returned by Sam as he headed out and went to bed himself. 

 

The next morning, Sam found Gabriel with books spread out around him in the library. “Morning Gabriel. How are you feeling?” he asked casually. 

“Better,” Gabriel said absentmindedly. 

Sam started to reach out a hand to pat the archangel’s shoulder but paused. “Can I…um…touch you now?” 

“Why Sammykins, are you propositioning me? Not sure I’m up to all that just yet,” Gabriel teased with a waggle of his eyebrows. 

“Nah, just wanna know if I can smack you yet,” Sam shot back with a smirk. Gabriel let out a laugh and a shrug so Sam slapped him lightly in the back of the head. He got a slight wince, but no more than an actual human would give so he figured he was safe. “You had breakfast yet?” Sam asked. Gabriel shook his head. “I’m going to grab me some. You want anything?” 

“I wouldn’t say no to some more of that cake,” Gabriel said hopefully. 

Sam chuckled. “Sure thing.” At least Gabriel was in better spirits this morning. 

When Sam got back to the library with two plates, one for Gabriel and one for him, Gabriel picked up his fork and headed for the cake before glancing over at Sam’s plate. “Please tell me those aren’t toaster waffles,” he said pained. 

“Yeah. They are. Why?” Sam asked curiously. 

Gabriel groaned. “You humans always have to ruin good food. Do you even know how to cook?” 

“Do you?” 

“Of course I do. As much as I love to eat, did you doubt it?” 

“I mean more than just boiling water,” Sam teased. 

“I’ll have you know I am a gourmet chef. I can cook things you can’t even pronounce,” Gabriel said smugly. 

Sam laughed a little. “We might just have to put you to work one of these days then.”

“I might just let you one of these days,” Gabriel laughed along with him.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Sam brought up something that he hoped wouldn’t put Gabriel back into a bad mood. “So I talked to Dean,” he started. 

“Well that’s good. It’d be a bit uncomfortable stuck here with you two if you weren’t talking to each other,” Gabriel joked. 

Sam rolled his eyes on continued. “Well the thing is…we agreed that you’re right. We deal with Amara and then we’re done. We’re out of the business.”

Gabriel suppressed his sigh of relief. He couldn’t deny that Sam and Dean were damn good hunters, but he stood by everything he had said. They were more worried about each other than the rest of the world and it not only got people killed, it got them into more trouble than they should be in too. Most importantly though, maybe he could finally stop worrying about Sam getting himself killed. He just hoped it would be that easy. “So what…you’ll just be putting this place back in mothballs? Walk away and ignore all the shady news reports and demon omens. Just pretend it doesn’t exist.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted. Why are you trying to talk me out of it?” Sam asked. 

“It is what I want and I’m not trying to talk you out of it. I just want to make sure you’re aware of what it means and that it won’t be so easy so that you don’t get pulled back into again,” Gabriel pointed out. 

Sam nodded and thought about it for a moment and Gabriel was right. It wouldn’t be that easy, but he would do it. Mostly. “I’m not saying I’m going to just turn my back if something ends up on my doorstep, but I won’t go looking for anything. I can ignore the news. I did it for four years at Stanford. This place isn’t ours anyway. We were supposed to destroy the key, not use it.”

“Don’t destroy it. Leave it with me. Or with Cas. We can keep it safe and if, somewhere down the road things get bad and this place is needed, or we run across someone who would make good use of it, we can get it into the right hands. Throwing this place away forever would just be stupid.”

Sam had to admit, Gabriel had a point. And he and Cas would live forever, unless they got killed so it was a good plan. Dean would want to leave it with Cas, but Sam couldn’t help but think, strange as it may seem, that Gabriel would be the better choice. He had more of a stake on earth, and more familiarity with how things worked and a better understanding of humans in general. Cas may have more heart, at least on the surface, but Gabriel had more practicality, when he chose to use it that is. Thankfully they would be able to avoid an argument because he and Dean had long agreed that men of letters stuff fell firmly in Sam’s purview and what to do with their bunker was clearly a men of letters issue. “Okay. Once we are done with Amara, I’ll give you the key to hold onto it until it’s needed.”

“Deal. But I won’t let you get dragged back in. I won’t give it back to you if you ask.” Gabriel wanted to make that perfectly clear. 

“That’s why I’m giving it to you instead of Cas,” Sam told him and Gabriel couldn’t help but smile at that. Cas would do anything for the Winchesters. Even let them shoot themselves in the foot if they asked. Gabriel, on the other hand, would do what was best for them, whatever their thoughts on the matter. The fact that Sam realized that…finally…almost made up for this mess they were currently in. Almost.


	6. Chapter 6

Sam and Gabriel passed a pleasant morning in the library and Sam was struck by how intelligent Gabriel actually was. It wasn’t until he realized that he was surprised that he realized that he shouldn’t have been and that he had completely misjudged the archangel from the first moment they met. Once he realized that he attempted to engage Gabriel in conversation more often, and not all of it related to their research. 

It was around lunchtime when they heard footsteps in the hallway. “Sounds like muttonhead number two is awake,” Gabriel said. 

Sam chuckled. “So I’m muttonhead number one I presume?”

“You’re always number one, Samsquatch,” Gabriel said with his own chuckle. 

“Should I be honored or insulted,” he asked amused. 

“Whichever you want, Sammykins,” Gabriel said with a smirk. 

Dean walked in on them laughing and said, “Doesn’t sound like you two are getting much work done in here.”

“Says the guy who slept half the day,” Gabriel stage-whispered. 

“And I’ll have you know we’re getting plenty of work done. We’re just having fun doing it,” Sam said smugly. 

“Has anyone ever considered the fact that this is the darkness we’re talking about. Why not just fight her with light?” Dean asked, that making perfect sense to his half-awake brain. 

“Oh come on. It’s not like she’s afraid of the light or anything. She walks around in broad daylight all the time,” Sam said rolling his eyes. 

“Hold up a sec Sam-a-lam. Maybe it’s not as stupid as you think,” Gabriel said thoughtfully. He didn’t elaborate for a minute and Sam recognized the look on his face as deep in thought so didn’t interrupt him. After a long silence, Gabriel refocused on the room to find both hunters looking at him expectantly. “Ok so her being the darkness doesn’t so much as make her the absence of light period. More like the absence of heaven’s light. There’s a big difference. If there were a way to harness heaven’s light in weapon form…well it wouldn’t kill her, but it might weaken her. Not by much, but it’s a place to start right?”

“Wow Dean. You actually had a good idea,” Sam joked. 

“I wouldn’t go that far. I would say less moronic than usual idea,” Gabriel chimed in. “But still better than I expected from you.”

Dean’s response was in the form of one finger as he shuffled out to find some coffee and something to eat, leaving the two researchers to their jokes. Dean knew that he wasn’t very good at research. He would help, of course, but he would be better served as their support system, so he whipped up some lunch for Sam and grabbed a bowl of candy for Gabriel and headed to the library. He was glad that he had made a run for sweets once Gabriel arrived, but looked forward to the archangel being able to snap things up again. 

When he got back to the library he found them both bent over the same book arguing the meaning of some obscure passage or another. “I’m telling you, Sammykins. This book was published in 1433 in Norway. Viburnum, also known currently as devil’s shoestring didn’t grow there. It’s referring to something else.” 

“Ok. Then what is it referring to?” Sam asked skeptically. 

“How am I supposed to know? This book is just a translation. If I had the original I might be able to tell you, but you have to admit it makes sense. The men of letters never could get this to work according to their notes and if they were using the wrong plant then that would be why.” 

Dean cleared his throat to get their attention and both of them snapped their heads around to look at him, Gabriel with a wince. The quick movement did not help his healing body at all. “I brought sustenance.”

“Thank god. I’m starving,” Sam said sitting back in his chair as his brother handed him the plate. 

Gabriel chirped a thanks and dug into the candy bowl before returning to their argument. “Once I get my grace back I’ll go liberate the original book and we’ll see what it says.”

“You really think that spell might work to bind her?” Sam asked hopefully. 

“If we can get it to work you mean, and probably not. She’s a lot stronger than anything that spell is meant to work for, but it’s a starting point like everything else. You two need to understand this is a marathon, not a sprint and the sooner you get that through your heads the easier this will be,” Gabriel told them. 

“But in the meantime she’s causing chaos and killing people and eating souls, so we need to make it as sprinty as possible,” Dean pointed out. 

“Well there’s nothing we can do about that right now. If we rush too much we make mistakes and we all die. Well, Sam and I die. Something tells me she has other plans for you Deano.” He could tell that neither hunter was at all happy about that so he added, “Believe me. It could be a lot worse. She could erase this entire universe from existence in the blink of an eye. She could do pretty much anything she wanted with just a thought. Let’s just be happy she’s sticking with the small stuff hmm?” 

“And if she moves on to the big stuff?” Dean asked. 

“Then I doubt any of us will be here to care,” Gabriel said with a shrug. At their incredulous looks he sighed. “Look. This is the situation we have to work with. We can either work with it or waste time bitching because it’s not what we want.”

“I get it Gabriel. But that doesn’t mean we have to like it,” Sam grumbled. 

“No one’s asking you to kiddo.”

Dean left the room shortly after that and Gabriel looked at Sam. “He’s not gonna help us research?” 

“Trust me. We don’t want him to. He spends more time whining and just being generally distracting than actually researching. His job during heavy research times is to make sure I eat and sleep.”

“Then he might as well take off and go make a life for himself or whatever he plans to do now that you’re not hunting anymore. If we need him for the boss fight we can snag him then,” Gabriel told him. 

“So when you say marathon you mean more than a few weeks,” Sam said defeated.

“I mean more like a few months. Minimum.”

“And him being cooped up here, underfoot would drive us all nuts. Yeah. You’re right. But how about we wait until you’re able to snap stuff up again at least. Unless we’re talking more than a few weeks for that too?”

“Nah. I’d say no more than a week tops for that. And I can live with that arrangement.”

Sam considered whether or not to bring up what Dean had asked him before, but decided it couldn’t hurt. Cas was back in heaven all busy, and maybe Gabriel could help. “So there is this thing Dean was thinking about. I don’t think he’s completely decided yet, and we don’t know if it’s even possible…” Sam paused to collect his thoughts and think of the best way to ask. 

“And I’m guessing since you’re bringing it up, it either involves me or you need my help with it, so shoot.”

“Well it’s kind of a long story, but cliffs notes version: after I went to hell he went and got himself a family. Shacked up with his old ex-girlfriend and her kid that might just be Dean’s too. Skip forward a bit and they got kidnapped by some demons to be used as leverage against him and Lisa almost died, and Ben was horribly traumatized and Dean got Cas to erase all their memories of him.”

“Wow. What an idiot. Just because they forgot about him doesn’t mean the demons forgot about them. Are you sure they are even still alive?” 

“I’m assuming that Dean has checked in on them from time to time so probably,” Sam shrugged. He tried to argue the same thing at the time, but Dean had shut him down cold. 

“So I’m guessing he wants to undo their memory loss and go back to playing happy family?” 

“Pretty much,” Sam nodded. 

“Well yeah it’s possible to restore their memories. Keeping them from killing him for having them erased in the first place is a different story,” Gabriel told him. 

“If he decides to do that…um…will you help…you know, if Cas can’t?” 

“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss that show for the world,” Gabriel said laughing heartily. “Please let me do it?” he asked hopefully. 

Sam laughed along with him. He wasn’t sure how amusing he would find Dean being ripped a new one, but he could see why Gabriel would and the archangel’s laugh was infectious. “That’s not up to me,” he pointed out. 

“Good point,” Gabriel said as the gears started turning in his head how to wrangle the concession out of Dean. 

Sam knew what he was thinking about and decided to throw him a bone. “I wouldn’t recommend using the amusement factor as a selling point.”


	7. Chapter 7

Not long after Dean had brought them dinner…well brought Sam dinner and refilled Gabriel’s candy bowl, they had pretty much set aside all research and were just talking and laughing about nothing. A few hours later they headed to bed. Gabriel was kind enough to let Sam help him up, this time by grabbing Gabriel’s elbow now that he wasn’t quite as sensitive. He was still pretty sensitive, but the slightest touch didn’t cause him excruciating pain anymore. The pressure on his elbow did hurt pretty badly, but not so much that he couldn’t handle it for a few seconds at least. “I’ll definitely be glad when I don’t have to worry about your carnivorous furniture anymore,” Gabriel grumbled as he got his footing. It took Sam a moment to figure out Gabriel’s meaning but once he did, he rolled his eyes and smothered his laugh as they headed down the hall, Sam casually keeping to Gabriel’s pace. 

Once he was lying in bed his mind started to wander. It started with wondering if things would work out for Dean with Lisa and Ben, then went to wondering if he would ever have a life like that. That was where his mind started taking a weird turn, as he found himself wondering if Gabriel would still be around, if he would still come and hang out with him, and why was Sam so concerned about that? Sure they were getting along well and the more Sam came to understand him, the more he respected him. And yeah, he wanted to help Gabriel, and make sure he didn’t get hurt for them again. Make sure he didn’t get hurt at all again. And damn it all. He was getting a crush on the damn archangel. Sam groaned. As if things weren’t difficult enough. 

The next morning Sam walked into the library to find Gabriel already elbow deep in a few thick tomes that even Sam would struggle with. The hunter couldn’t help but wonder how long this studiousness would last once the archangel was healed. Gabriel wasn’t really the type to sit still for long periods of time, after all. Gabriel turned to look at him with a grin and Sam stumbled a bit as he returned it, earning him an amused raised eyebrow. Sam rolled his eyes at his own foolishness. Just because he realized he had a crush was no reason to get all flustered like a teenager. “I’m grabbing breakfast. Want anything?” he asked. 

“Already polished off the rest of that cake, but you could always bring some more candy to get me through the grueling hours of research.”

Sam returned a few minutes later with oatmeal and some fruit. He much preferred sharing a meal with someone even if Gabriel wasn’t eating too. He pulled a book over and started skimming through it while he ate. Once his oatmeal was finished and he was just absentmindedly popping a piece of fruit in his mouth every so often, he decided to ask some of the questions that had been eating at him ever since Gabriel first appeared. “So how come you never told us you were alive?” 

“Why? So you could find a bus to throw me under as soon as you got in over your heads?” Gabriel asked wryly.

“It’s not like you couldn’t say no if we asked for your help,” Sam pointed out. 

“Have you ever tried saying no to you?” Gabriel asked with a pointed look. 

Sam lips twitched, threatening a smile. “No. Can’t say that I have.”

“Well it’s not exactly easy. Between your puppy eyes and your brother’s guilt trips, I just decided to save myself the trouble. It’s not like I had any reason to believe that you wanted to see me for anything other than heroically sacrificing myself to save you.”

“Why did you do that? I mean yeah, the first time maybe we pushed you into it, and I’m still sorry about that by the way, but this time…”

“Like I was gonna let you die,” Gabriel scoffed. 

“Why not? Why would you care?” Sam asked. 

Gabriel smirked. He had no intention of answering that question so he decided to play with the hunter a bit. “Why do you care why I care?” 

Sam rolled his eyes but played along. “Why do you care why I care why you care?”

Gabriel laughed. Like Sam could ever beat him at this game. “Why do you care why I care why you care why I care?

“Why do you care why I care why I care why…damnit. I don’t care about this stupid game. I just wanna know why you care.” 

“About the game?” Gabriel asked amused. 

“No doofus. About me…er…whether I die or not,” Sam tried to cover his slip of the tongue. 

“You seem to be under the impression that if you ask me enough you’ll actually get an answer. It’s so cute,” Gabriel mock cooed at him. 

Sam had no idea why he did what he did next except that he wanted to shut Gabriel up and put that mouth to a better use, but he leaned over and kissed him. Gabriel’s lips molded around his as the archangel kissed him back, neither moving to deepen the kiss, and it took a few seconds for Sam’s brain to catch up with his body and when it did, he pulled back like he’d been burned. “Shit…Gabriel…I…I’m sorry…” he stood quickly and his chair fell backwards to the floor and he started to head out, but Gabriel grabbed his wrist before he got out of reach and used it to haul himself to his feet, before giving a burst of archangel strength to pull Sam back to him and he reached a hand to the back of the hunter’s neck and pulled him down into another kiss, this one more insistent, almost desperate. When Sam’s arms came around Gabriel’s waist, the archangel licked out his tongue to deepen the kiss and Sam immediately opened for him as he pulled Gabriel tightly against him and Gabriel’s hands tangled in Sam’s hair. 

When they broke apart, Gabriel held Sam’s forehead against his own as they both tried to catch their breath. “I guess you got your answer anyway,” Gabriel whispered. 

Sam couldn’t help the grin that broke out. “I guess you’re feeling better,” he observed. 

“Not really,” Gabriel admitted. “But some things are worth it.” 

That sobered Sam up and he immediately let Gabriel go and took a step away, not missing the frown that crossed Gabriel’s face. “Worth it or not, I don’t want to hurt you Gabriel,” he said sincerely. 

Gabriel gave a half-hearted huff. “Fine. But we’re trying that again when I’m all healed up.” 

Sam gave a little chuckle. “Deal,” he said happily. Gabriel grinned at him and stepped forward and pressed his lips gently against Sam’s for just a moment before stepping back again. “Gabriel…” Sam warned. 

“Light touches are fine, Samsquatch. I’m not that sensitive anymore,” Gabriel told him. After that he didn’t know if he could take it if Sam wouldn’t touch him at all. Sam tentatively reached out a hand to brush his knuckles against the side of Gabriel’s face and Gabriel gave a soft smile and leaned into the touch, eyes fluttering closed. Sam couldn’t wipe the smile off his face and leaned forward to give him another light, short kiss before saying, “We should get back to work.”

“You expect me to be able to concentrate after that?” Gabriel asked incredulously. 

“Well if it’s that distracting maybe I shouldn’t do it anymore,” Sam teased. 

Gabriel quickly took his seat and pulled a book over to him. “Who said anything about distracting? I can concentrate just fine,” he said as seriously as he could manage and Sam let out a loud laugh as he picked his discarded chair back up off the ground and took his seat next to Gabriel again.

They spent the rest of the morning sneaking glances and smiles at each other between passages, absentmindedly reaching out a hand to play with the other’s hair, and occasionally even stealing small kisses. It was during one of these times that Dean walked in. “Oh for crying out loud,” he said wearily and turned around and walked right back out, making both of them collapse in laughter.


	8. Chapter 8

When Dean popped in an hour later with lunch, he started to head back out and leave them to their research but Sam stopped him. “Hey hold up a sec,” he said. Dean turned around to look at him curiously. “We were thinking, once Gabriel’s all healed up, if you want to head out you’re welcome to. It’s probably not gonna be anything but research for a good long while.”

Dean smirked. “You just want some time alone with your new boyfriend,” he said amused.

“No. That’s not it. We talked about that way before…this…happened,” Sam protested.

Gabriel snorted in amusement. “I’ve been awake for three days. I think we need to work on your definition of ‘way before’” he quipped. 

“Nobody asked you,” Sam joked. 

“Just sayin,” Gabriel said with a chuckle. “Even if that was the reason, why would that be an issue anyway?” he challenged. 

“It wouldn’t…I just…I don’t…” Sam realized that Gabriel was just playing with him and trying to back him into a corner and gave him a mock glare before he found the words. “I just don’t want Dean to think we’re trying to get rid of him.”

“Well we are. Just not because of that. Because he’s apparently a big baby when it comes to research,” Gabriel said matter-of-factly. 

“Hey! I am not a baby about it. I just don’t like it,” Dean said looking affronted. 

Sam sighed. “Ok yes. I’m trying to get rid of you because the two of you together are going to give me ulcers,” he groaned. 

“Oh so I’m the one you throw away?” Dean teased. 

“You wanna take over Gabriel’s share of the research?” Sam asked sweetly. 

“Nah. I’ll be the throwaway,” Dean said quickly. He suddenly sobered and said, “I should call Cas…”

Gabriel interrupted his train of thought. “Sammykins told me the deal and I’d be happy to restore her memories for you. I know Cassie is pretty busy. No need to bother him when I’m here to help.”

“You would do that?” Dean asked suspiciously. It wasn’t like Gabriel to so freely offer help with such minor things. 

“Absolutely. It’s not like it’s that hard. I’d be glad to help,” Gabriel said quickly. Too quickly if Sam’s attempt not to laugh was anything to go by. 

Dean warily accepted the offer though. He would have a talk with Sam about making sure his boyfriend stayed in line before they did anything though. It would have to wait until Gabriel was healed up anyway. Until then they needed him to schlep. 

Almost as soon as Dean was out the door, Sam burst into laughter. “You almost blew it there Gabe.”

“How so?” Gabriel asked curiously. 

“You were way too eager. You never offer help that freely or that eagerly. I’d be willing to bet I’m in for an interrogation about what you’re planning,” Sam told him. 

“I’m not planning anything. I just want to watch,” Gabriel said petulantly. 

“Don’t worry. I won’t sell you out. As long as you promise me that you won’t intentionally throw any spanners into the works or play any pranks,” Sam said sternly. 

“I’ll be on my best behavior. Promise.”

“Good. Then I’ll do what I can to help you out,” Sam agreed and they got back to their research. After dinner they set the research aside and just spent the evening together, inviting Dean to join them. Occasionally topics of research came up and were discussed, but mostly they talked about other things. They had moved to the living room, Sam and Gabriel sitting on the couch, Gabriel leaning lightly against Sam and Sam’s arm resting gently on Gabriel’s shoulder. 

Sam and Gabriel had pretty much settled on the same schedule so they got up to go to bed at the same time. Gabriel would be glad when he was healed and didn’t have to sleep anymore. Not that he didn’t enjoy sleep, but being forced to sleep when there were other things he’d rather be doing wasn’t really his cup of tea. 

They reached Sam’s room first and Gabriel pulled Sam into a kiss, quickly deepening it, but keeping it soft and gentle. He let out a little whimper when they had to break for air and Sam grinned and pressed one more short kiss to the archangel’s lips before turning and heading into his room and collapsing happily on his bed. 

He should have known he wasn’t going to get to sleep yet though. Dean definitely wasn’t patient enough to wait until tomorrow to interrogate him. No sooner than he had laid down he heard a soft knock on his door. “C’mon in Dean,” he said tiredly as he sat back up again. 

“Ok so what’s the pixie planning?” Dean asked as soon as he stepped in the door. 

“Nothing,” Sam told him. Dean gave him a pointed look and Sam held up his hands in surrender. “I asked him the same thing. He promised that he would be on his best behavior. No tricks, no pranks, nothing.”

“So what? He’s just being nice and trying to help?” Dean asked confused and Sam nodded. “That’s creepy.”

Sam couldn’t help but laugh at that. The fact that Dean considered Gabriel being helpful as creepy given all the things they’d seen was hilarious. “You’ll make sure he doesn’t try anything?” Dean asked, hoping that his brother would be on his side on this. 

“I don’t think I should be there when it goes down, but yeah. I’ll stress the importance and use my newfound influence to make sure he behaves,” Sam promised despite knowing that it wouldn’t be needed. 

“Why shouldn’t you be there?” 

“Think about it. Last time she saw me I was soulless and pulled you back out of the happy life you had built together. I’m probably the last person she will want to see again.”

“Well you’re still my brother, so if she will take me back she’ll have to get used to you eventually,” Dean pointed out. 

“And that’s fine, but maybe don’t throw me in her face first thing, yeah?” 

“Ok. You probably have a point,” Dean said as he stood and headed out. Sam lay back down and fell asleep quickly. People didn’t often realize that research, despite being mostly sedentary, could be exhausting. 

The next morning, Sam shuffled into the library with his own breakfast and some red velvet cake. It seemed that he had beaten Gabriel up for once so he just covered the cake, and ate his own breakfast while he got an early start on the research. It wasn’t long after that though before Gabriel came in. He was moving better today, if still a little gingerly. At least he wasn’t hobbling anymore. Sam gave him a grin and slid the plate of cake over to his seat and Gabriel grinned back and gave Sam a quick kiss before sitting down to eat his cake. 

“So I was thinking…” Sam started causing Gabriel to look up at him curiously. “Dean suggested using light against her darkness, and I thought maybe there might be other aspects of her nature that we could use against her.”

“Hmm. That’s an idea. She is essentially the destruction to my father’s creation,” Gabriel said thoughtfully. 

“Ok that’s something. When I was researching how to kill Kali…”

Gabriel cut him off. “You were trying to kill Kali? Why?” 

“Well not exactly trying to kill her. Just researching how. She tried to kill you. I was bitter,” Sam said with a shrug. 

“But you didn’t even like me then,” Gabriel said curiously. 

“Of course I did. I mean we weren’t best buds or anything, but like I said before, after TV land I started to understand you, and respect you. Then you came in there all avenging angel to save us and she tried to kill you for it, so yeah. Bitter.”

“But you never went after her?” Gabriel asked curiously. 

“Nah. You made the effort to save her. I figured you must have had a reason, even if only sentimentality and probably wouldn’t like it too much if we staked her ass anyway.”

“Honestly I wouldn’t have cared too much. I saved her because she was there and it might come in handy, her owing me a favor. Not because I actually cared about her. She threw any residual sentimentality out of the window when she stabbed me,” Gabriel said. 

“Well maybe that favor can still come in handy someday, but we got off track. Kali was a goddess of destruction so everything I found said that to kill her you had to exploit creation in some way. I doubt it would work the same way, but maybe that’s an avenue to look down. A lot was mentioned about blood of creation, I’m guessing that means placental blood or something, so maybe if we find anything blood related we can try and substitute that.”

“Good thinking Samsquatch. I knew there was a reason I kept you around,” Gabriel said with a smirk. Gabriel may have more knowledge than pretty much any other living being, but ingenuity and creativity wasn’t something that was built into angels. In that way, humans were far superior, the men of letters and his Sammy even more so. It was the main reason he always read things like fantasy books and tabloids to get ideas. Maybe between his knowledge and Sam’s ingenuity they might actually have a shot at this. He was more hopeful than he had been when they started this at least.


	9. Chapter 9

Sam and Gabriel spent the remainder of the day much like the one’s before. They stayed mostly lost in their research until after dinner, when Gabriel set the research aside. Sam wasn’t too happy about that though. “We can still work for a few hours. We can’t take every night off,” he pointed out. 

“It does none of us any good if we burn out, Sam-a-lam. We need to take a few hours a day off and even take a whole day off from time to time or we will burn out. Trust me on this one kiddo.”

Sam sighed heavily. He knew Gabriel had a point but, “I just can’t get over the fact that she’s out there wreaking havoc while we’re sitting here having fun.”

“I get that Sammy. I do. But we need some time off. If we work ourselves too hard, we get careless, we make mistakes, and most importantly we can forget what we’re fighting for. So just do me a favor and take a few hours a day to relax, okay?” 

“Okay,” Sam reluctantly agreed. “I’ll take the time off and I’ll try to relax, but I can’t make any promises.”

Gabriel gave him a suggestive smirk. “Once I’m healed up a little more, I can make sure you relax,” he said with a wink. 

Sam blushed a bit and said, “I look forward to it.”

Gabriel leaned over for a kiss, giving a little nip to Sam’s lower lip as he broke the kiss and moved his mouth to Sam’s ear. “You have no idea,” he growled huskily and Sam’s breath caught. 

Sam turned his head to press a soft open-mouthed kiss to Gabriel’s neck and Gabriel sucked in a sharp breath followed by a contented sigh. When Sam got up and walked away, Gabriel whimpered, but as soon as he saw that Sam was just locking the door, his eyes lit up. 

Sam walked back over to him and kissed him again, slow and deep, resting one hand against the side of Gabriel’s face and the other over his hip. Gabriel kicked the legs of the recliner down and pulled Sam to his knees in front of him as he tangled one hand in Sam’s hair and trailed his other hand over the hunter’s chest. This wasn’t quite what he had in mind for relaxing, but it was as close as he could manage at the moment so he would take it. 

Before long, Gabriel’s need was becoming more and more urgent, so he moved his hand from Sam’s chest and took Sam’s hand at his hip and moved it over until it was resting over his aching erection. Sam took the hint and rubbed his hand gently over it, swallowing Gabriel’s moan. Gabriel moved his hands to Sam’s pants, and after pausing a moment for Sam to stop him if he wanted to, undid them and took Sam’s hard cock in his hand and Sam moaned into Gabriel’s mouth. 

That was when Gabriel realized a problem. Sam pressed a little harder on Gabriel’s erection and Gabriel hissed in pain. There was no way he was going to be able to get off with the light touches that didn’t hurt. Sam tried to jerk his hand back but Gabriel grabbed his wrist and held his hand in place. He needed Sam to touch him. 

Sam realized the problem too and when Gabriel wouldn’t let him pull away he took a moment to consider a solution. He moved his lips to Gabriel’s neck, keeping it light and moved his other hand down to undo Gabriel’s pants and freed his length. Sam sat back on the back of his legs and let his mouth hover over it and asked, “Do you want me to…”

“Oh please god, yes,” Gabriel breathed out, glad that Sam had found a solution, but not quite as happy that he couldn’t reach the hunter’s cock anymore. Sam moved his own hand to stroke himself as he pressed a nervous kiss to the tip of Gabriel’s, tasting the archangel’s precum against his lips. He’d never done this before and wasn’t really sure what he was doing, but he would do his best. He opened his mouth and moved down, taking the head in his mouth and licking over it. Gabriel, panting, moved his hand back to Sam’s hair as he let out a low moan. 

Sam took a little more in his mouth and added some suction and Gabriel’s hand tightened in Sam’s hair pushing him further down and he started to choke but Gabriel just breathed out a quiet, “Relax,” so Sam tried and found that it was more comfortable than he’d expected. Sam swallowed around him a few times, trying to get used to the feeling and Gabriel’s breath got even shorter. Once he was ready, he began bobbing his head as he sucked. “Oh…fuck…yes…Sammy,” Gabriel gasped. Once Sam got used to that he added his tongue in the mix and his hand started moving faster and faster over his own cock as the sounds that Gabriel was making were driving him higher. When he started moaning around Gabriel’s cock, the archangel started thrusting up into his mouth and when Sam came over his own hand, he let out a long growling moan and Gabriel cried out as he spilled himself in Sam’s mouth, pushing his head all the way down and gripping tightly as Sam swallowed around him. 

Once Gabriel’s hand fell bonelessly off of his head Sam sat back on his heels with a self-satisfied grin and just looked at Gabriel. The archangel’s head was resting back against the chair, hair fanned out, cheeks flushed and looking utterly debauched and Sam had never seen him look more beautiful. He tucked himself back into his own pants and got up pressing a long slow kiss to Gabriel’s lips and when he pulled back, Gabriel looked at him a little dazed and just murmured, “Love you Sammy.”

It took a few seconds for Gabriel to realize what he’d said and his eyes went wide and Sam could see the fear building in them and he wanted nothing more than to make it go away, but he needed a moment to collect his thoughts. To finally try to put a name to everything he’d been feeling for the archangel. He leaned forward again to kiss Gabriel, and kept it up until he felt the archangel start to relax under his ministrations. He realized then that he loved Gabriel too. He had no idea when it had happened, but it had. He pulled back and waited until Gabriel opened those beautiful amber eyes before he whispered, “I love you Gabriel.”

A warm genuine smile broke out on the archangel’s face as he leaned his head forward and rested his forehead against Sam’s. “You have no idea how long I’ve wished…” he trailed off, unable to find words. 

Sam didn’t bother asking why he never said anything. He knew. “I had no idea what I was missing,” Sam said softly, bringing his hand up to rest against the side of Gabriel’s neck. “I had no idea that everything I ever wanted was right in front of me. I’m glad you came back.”

“I’ll never leave again, Samshine,” Gabriel promised.

Sam’s lips quirked at that. “Samshine?” he questioned. 

“It fits,” Gabriel said with a grin. 

“How so?” Sam gave a slight chuckle. 

“Because you’re the light that brightens my life, so instead of sunshine, you’re my Samshine.” 

Sam laughed outright at that. “I think that’s the corniest thing I’ve ever heard.” Gabriel laughed along with him and Sam added, “I like it,” as he kissed Gabriel again. 

Once their lips separated, Gabriel rested his head on Sam’s shoulder and turned so that his forehead was against the hunter’s neck. “I love you my Samshine.”

“And I love you, my Gabriel,” he returned leaning his head against the archangel’s. “But I really need to get up. My knees are killing me,” he said with a snicker. 

Gabriel belted a quick laugh. “Right. I’d imagine so. Sorry,” he said, not at all sorry. 

“You want to go curl up on the couch for a while?” Sam asked. 

Gabriel nodded and did his pants back up and managed to get up by himself this time as Sam went and unlocked the door and they headed to the living room to join Dean who was watching television.


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning, Gabriel woke first again and started on some books while waiting for Sam. He didn’t have long to wait, in fact, he had barely made it through two pages before Sam came in, asking if he needed anything before he went to get breakfast. 

Sam brought back another large piece of the cake along with his own breakfast and as they were eating, Gabriel said, “You know how we made the deal that I ask for help if I need it?” 

“Yeah,” Sam said drawing the word out warily. 

“Well I think I’m good to start using my powers, but if not I might need a little help after I try.”

“Maybe you should wait a little longer just to be sure,” Sam suggested worriedly. 

“Nah. Wouldn’t help. Only way to know is to try,” Gabriel told him. 

“Okay. You know I’ll help in any way I can,” Sam told him earnestly. 

Gabriel snapped his fingers. He winced in anticipation of pain, but slowly opened his eyes when it didn’t come and grinned at the sight of the milkshake on the table in front of him. He grabbed it and took a long pull. 

“You good?” Sam asked. 

“Yep. All good. Should still probably avoid the big stuff for a while, but otherwise I’m good. When Deano gets up I’ll see if he wants to go ahead and take care of his thing.”

“Wouldn’t that be big stuff?” Sam asked pointedly. 

“Nah. Flying is simple and fiddling with memories even more so. I mean things like making alternate dimensions, playing with time, smiting, heavy wards, stuff like that.”

“Okay. Just be careful and don’t overdo it,” Sam warned. 

“I won’t, Samshine,” Gabriel told him leaning in for a kiss. He was feeling much better today. Almost as good as human normal. 

Once Dean popped in around midmorning when he woke up, Gabriel waved him in. “So I can use my powers again so I thought you might want to take care of your thing today,” he suggested. 

“You’re sure you’re up for it?” Dean asked concerned. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Geez. I thought Sam was the only mother hen around here. Yes, I’m up for it.”

“Ok then yeah. That’d be great,” Dean said relieved. Ever since the thought had struck him it had been eating at him and he was more than ready to get it over with, come what may.

“Ok, so how do you want to do this?” Gabriel asked. 

“What do you mean?” Dean asked confused. 

“Well do you wanna ring the doorbell, say hello, and introduce ourselves, or just ambush her, or what? Do you want to restore all her memories at once or do it in parts?”

“Um…” Dean hadn’t considered any of that. “What is involved in the process? I mean will you need her to be cooperative or will she be knocked out or…”

“I’ll need to touch her head, she will go unconscious for a few minutes, and then wake up with her memories.”

“Can you…ambush her…without her seeing you and getting scared?” Dean asked. It would probably be easier than trying to convince her to let some stranger touch her head.

“Sure thing Deano. I can stay invisible until she’s out,” Gabriel told him with a shrug. 

“Ok. Then that would probably be the best way. And as far as the memories, can you restore everything except the last few days? I’ll let her decide if she wants to remember that whole ordeal once we explain.”

“Ok sounds good. Just her or the kid too?” 

“Just her at first. She can decide if she wants to do the same for Ben,” Dean said. He made the mistake of not giving her a choice last time. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again. 

“Ok. So we got a plan. You ready to go?” Gabriel asked. 

“Um…Can I have some breakfast and freshen up first?” Dean asked wryly. 

“Yeah. Sure. Just let me know when you’re ready,” Gabriel told him as he turned back to the book he had been involved in. 

 

It was about twenty minutes before Dean interrupted to tell Gabriel that he was ready. Gabriel took Dean’s shoulder and transported them to her backyard. “Stay here and stay quiet. I’ll come get you in a minute.”

When Dean nodded, Gabriel disappeared. He reappeared in her kitchen behind her as she was washing dishes. He placed his hand on her head and flew her to the couch before flying back outside, grabbing Dean and bringing him back in. “She’s out. I’ll restore the memories now, but I figured, just in case she manages to wake back up immediately afterwards, you should be here.”

“Thanks Gabriel,” Dean whispered, despite the fact that Gabriel was speaking in a normal voice. It just didn’t seem right to talk aloud with her sleeping right next to him. Gabriel placed his hand back on her head and left it there for a good few minutes. 

“I left off just before the demons pulled up to kidnap them. She’ll know that she’s still missing a few days though if she thinks hard enough, but that’s the best I can do.”

“That’s okay. That’ll be good enough,” Dean said wringing his hands as he paced nervously waiting for her to wake up. The ten minutes that it took felt more like ten hours but finally she was waking up. Gabriel took a step back, well out of the way of any punches that could be thrown and far enough that she wouldn’t see him at first even, and Dean took the opposite road. He sat on the coffee table right in front of her.

She blinked her eyes open and confusion was written in her features for a moment before comprehension dawned and her eyes snapped to Dean. Just as Gabriel suspected, her first response was a right cross directly to Dean’s jaw. It was a good one too if Gabriel said so himself and he kept his snickers silent so as not to disturb the confrontation. “You son of a bitch! You erased our memories?!”

Dean ignored the pain in his jaw and the blood dripping down his lip as he just looked calmly at her. “I had a very good reason and I realize now that, good reason or not I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. 

“You’re sorry?! You’re sorry?!” she practically shrieked. “How dare you!?” She punched him again and he just took it. Didn’t try to block or dodge or restrain her. Gabriel was amazed at his control. He wasn’t sure he would be able to do the same in his position. He would definitely do the same in hers though, he thought with a chuckle as she took yet another swing, this time catching him in the eye and he hit a knee from the force of it, which snapped her out of her rage for the most part. “I…Oh…god…are…are you okay?” She asked horrified. She had never been one for violence. Especially against someone not fighting back. 

He looked up at her and she gasped and put her hands over her mouth at the sight of the swelling that was already present and the seeping blood from his lip and where her ring had cut him. Dean cut a glance back to Gabriel with a question in his eyes. “Sure thing Deano. I gotcha,” he stepped forward and placed a hand on his forehead healing Dean up. “Carry on. I can keep that up all day,” he offered with a wave of his hands to Lisa. Dean shot him a disgruntled look of betrayal, to which Gabriel just held up his hands in surrender. “Hey I said I wasn’t gonna stop her from killing you. I’m just here to restore the memories.” 

Gabriel’s words reminded her that she had good reason to be pissed, even if she did take it too far so she turned back to Dean. She would worry about the other guy later. “What could you possibly say to make this alright?” She hissed angrily. 

“If you think about it, you’ll realize that you’re still missing a few days of your memories…” When she started puffing up again at that he held up his hands. “You’ll get them back if you want them. I swear. I just want to explain what you’d be getting if you did okay?” he tried to placate her. 

“Fine. Talk,” she ground out through clenched jaw. 

“You were kidnapped by demons. You and Ben. To get to me. They possessed you as insurance so that when I rescued you, they were poised to strike. The demon in you took Ben hostage and held a knife to his throat to make me stand down. I managed to get Ben away and started to exorcise the demon in you, but she stabbed herself…you…so that when she was exorcised you would die…slowly. I couldn’t just leave it in you like that. I didn’t have a choice so I finished the exorcism and sent that bitch back to hell, but then you were bleeding out and I had to carry you so Ben had to help us fight our way out. I was…I had to…I was barking orders at him and even had to smack him a few times to get him to respond, but you were dying and I couldn’t…He was so completely traumatized that he didn’t speak at all after that, even after you were in the hospital hooked up to some machines. I managed to find someone to heal you after the doctors said you wouldn’t make it through the night and I had your memories modified so that neither of you would remember the horrific experience or me and could start your lives over without the taint that I bring with me.”

“Did you even ask how I felt about it?” 

“You were unconscious. Almost dead. It seemed like the best idea at the time.”

“So what changed?” she snapped. “Why now?” She was feeling a little better about the idea after that, but that didn’t make it okay. Not by a long shot.


	11. Chapter 11

Dean hesitated a moment before he said, “Well you remember when I said that whenever I picture myself happy, it’s with you?” 

“Oh hell no. Tell me you did not just restore my memories because you want us to take you back. Not after everything. I will not keep doing this Dean Winchester. You made your choice. You walked out on us.”

“I know I did. And it was the biggest mistake of my life. I’m done with hunting Lis. For good. I swear,” Dean told her. 

She scoffed. “I’ve heard that before.”

“I really mean it this time. Well I meant it last time too, but then Sammy was back and I couldn’t just let him run around out there without backing him up. We’ve always looked out for each other since we were kids and I couldn’t just abandon him, but he’s out now too.”

“Yeah and what happens when he gets back in and you go running off to ‘watch his back’ again,” She snapped. She could believe that he wanted out. He had wanted out before, but his need to take care of Sam had him torn. 

“He won’t. It’s…a lot of things have happened, but we don’t just want out. We need to be out. Both of us,” Dean assured her. 

“And how am I supposed to believe that?” she asked. She wasn’t even allowing herself to consider the option of taking him back yet, but if she was going to consider it, she needed to know it wouldn’t end like last time. 

“Um…sorry Deano. I know I promised to stay out of it, but maybe I can help with this one?” Gabriel spoke up. 

“And who the hell are you anyway?” Lisa barked. 

“Lisa this is…” Dean paused not sure if Gabriel wanted his identity known by anyone else, but not really willing to lie to Lisa any more, especially not now. Gabriel knew that and just waved for him to continue, trying to hide his discomfort at the idea. “This is the archangel Gabriel.”

“You’re shitting me,” her jaw dropped. 

Gabriel grinned and snapped his fingers causing a bright light to shine from the ceiling and a halo to appear over his head. Dean smacked him in the chest, not hard since he remembered just in time that Gabriel was still healing, but hard enough to sting and said, “Can the theatrics would ya.”

Gabriel just laughed and shrugged as it all disappeared and Lisa was sputtering. “I…oh god…I mean…I’m sorry…I didn’t…”

“Don’t worry sweetheart. I’m not a stickler for rules and respect and all that jazz. You should hear the way Deano here talks to me,” he tried to set her mind at ease. 

Lisa just blinked at him. If anyone had ever told her that she would have an archangel in her living room she would never have believed it. On top of that, the fact that he acted nothing like he would have imagined an archangel to be was throwing her way off her game and she was torn between her righteous anger, skepticism, and awe. Both men in the room gave her a few minutes to collect her thoughts before she finally found her voice again. “I…um…you said something about helping…with something?” She couldn’t even remember where they were in the conversation before all that and what he was supposed to be helping with. 

“Well, you seemed worried about Sammy going back to hunting and I can personally guarantee you that he won’t be…ever…unless he wants to end up in an alternate dimension full of padded rooms.”

Dean snickered a little and then explained for Lisa, “Sam and Gabriel are…a thing. And Gabriel is extremely protective.” He gave it a moment for that to sink in before saying, “So you see? Even if Sam did somehow convince Gabriel to let him go back to hunting, which won’t happen, he won’t need me to watch his back with an all-powerful and over-protective archangel dogging his steps.” 

“You can’t just keep waltzing in and out of our lives,” she told him. 

“I know. And I am so sorry, but if you will let me make amends, I swear that I’m with you. For good.”

“And no more hunting? At all?” 

“Well if something gets close enough to threaten us, I’ll take care of it of course, and there is one piece of unfinished business that I’ll have to handle eventually but even then, Gabriel can just come get me for the fight and then bring me right back. I shouldn’t even be gone for more than a few hours. Other than that, I’m done completely.”

“Unfinished business?” she scoffed. “Right. And then another piece of unfinished business and another. Why can’t Mr. All-powerful archangel…no offense,” she turned to say to Gabriel, “take care of it without you?” 

“It’s a long story, but I’ll explain. I don’t want any more secrets between us Lis. Whether we work things out or not. See I had to get this spell cast on me in order to take down a big bad. Gabriel was dead at the time so only I could do it, but I didn’t realize this spell was a curse and it was destroying me. Sam found another spell that would break the curse, but we didn’t realize that breaking the curse would release the worst monster to ever exist. It took god and all four archangels to lock her away the first time and now god is MIA and we are three archangels down. Sam and Gabriel are researching ways to lock her back up or better yet kill her, but it’ll probably be an all hands on deck situation and since Sam and I are responsible for releasing her in the first place…”

Gabriel saw the need to jump in here. “I understand your concern and all, but with all the other archangels dead there are only two beings in existence that I can’t take out alone. Her and my father. So unless god pops back in on a rampage we’ll be set. And if you want, I will make sure we find a way to keep Dean out of this fight too.”

“Gabriel, no. It’s my fight. It’s my responsibility.”

“And if it’s that or your family?” Gabriel asked. 

Dean sighed and nodded his acceptance. “Whatever you want Lis. You want me to stay out of it, I will.”

“I haven’t decided if I’m going to forgive you yet,” she told him. 

“I know. And if you need some time, you have it. I’ll wait as long as it takes,” Dean told her. 

“Wait…so you were dead?” she asked Gabriel.

“Yeah. Morons one and two here went and pissed off another archangel and I heroically sacrificed my life to allow them to escape,” he told her. 

Dean scoffed, but couldn’t argue. Especially now. Lisa looked confused though, “But you’re alive again…”

“Yeah. Another long story that I don’t really want to go into, and I know what you’re thinking, but no none of the other archangels can be brought back…well again, unless Father suddenly shows back up and does it obviously. The method that brought me back was destroyed.”

“Wait…you destroyed the word of god? Is that even possible? Couldn’t another prophet just come along and put it back together?” Dean asked. 

“Only if all the pieces were in close proximity and after Cassie smashed the tablet, I went back and did the job right. I shattered it into individual molecules and spread it across the entire galaxy. Trust me. It’s not coming back,” Gabriel said smugly. 

“But the others?” Dean asked. 

“May still turn out to be useful and they don’t hold enough power to do any damage on their own,” Gabriel told him. 

“Ok I didn’t follow much of that, but I think I understood enough,” Lisa chimed back in and Dean and Gabriel turned to look at her apologetically. They had kind of gone off on a tangent. “You keep saying something about god being gone?” 

“Yeah. He skipped out after the whole snake in the garden incident and hasn’t been seen since. Some think he’s dead, some think he just doesn’t care anymore, but either way, after all this time, it’s not likely that he’ll be coming back and even if he did, it probably wouldn’t be to cause trouble, and still even if he did, I would stay well away from it and make sure Sam and thus Dean did too, so yeah.”

Lisa felt like she was on information overload at the moment. Not only did she have to contend with all her memories rushing back and the current state of things, but all this information about god, angels, and archangels had her head spinning. She sat, or more like fell, onto the couch as she tried to process. Gabriel snapped his fingers and handed her a glass of water. She absentmindedly took a sip, and then said wryly, “You got anything stronger?” Gabriel snapped again and handed her another glass. She took a sip and gasped. “What…what is it?” 

Gabriel smiled proudly. “It’s meade of the gods. Straight from Zeus’ private stores in Mount Olympus. Won it in a bet a few thousand years ago…good yeah?” 

“What was the…you know what…never mind. I can’t take any more today.” Lisa had almost asked what kind of bet he would make with Zeus and ask some questions about the whole gods thing, but she’d had enough. Maybe another time. She took another sip. “It is good. Really good. I’ve never tasted anything like it.”

Dean looked hopefully at Gabriel who laughed. “Sammy does the puppy eyes much better than you Deano.” He snapped up another glass for Dean too anyway. 

“Hey! How come so little?” he asked frowning at the not more than a mouthful in the glass. 

“She needs to take the edge off. The last thing you need right now is to get drunk. You get a taste,” Gabriel told him and Lisa nodded approvingly and thankfully at him. 

“Ok so I want the rest of my memories back,” she said. 

“You’re sure?” Dean asked worriedly. 

“Yes. No matter how bad it is I need to know. I have a right to know,” she said firmly. 

Gabriel stepped forward and took the glass of meade from her hand and set it on the table. You’ll be out for a few minutes, but when you wake up you’ll remember everything,” he told her as he placed his hand on her head. 

When she woke up the first thing that happened was she burst into tears. “The things that…thing…said to Ben. The things she did. And I couldn’t stop it. I…I wasn’t strong enough…”

Dean took a chance and slid next to her on the couch and put an arm around her. “Hey, it’s not your fault. I’ve been possessed to. Taking control in that situation is all but impossible. It doesn’t make you weak. Being possessed is pretty much the worst feeling in the world. Believe me.”

She took a deep breath and managed to calm herself down. About that time, Ben walked into the house calling for his mother. He came into the living room and stopped in his tracks. “Who are they?” he asked curiously. 

“Not right now Ben. Just go up to your room for a little while please,” she said. 

From the second Ben walked in Gabriel’s attention was on him and his head tilted curiously. He glanced back to Dean and then to Ben a couple times even as Ben headed up the stairs. Well things just got a hundred times more complicated.


	12. Chapter 12

“Will you be giving him his memories back too?” 

“That’s up to you,” Dean told her. “But maybe…” he turned to Gabriel. “Would it be possible to share my memories with her so she can see what happened after she lost consciousness and have an idea of what Ben would be getting back?” Dean knew that after the fit she made about deserving to have the memories, even the bad ones, she would be leaning towards giving Ben his memories back. 

“Sure. If you want?” he asked Lisa. She nodded, so Gabriel put a hand on each of their heads and he even did Dean a favor and started from the moment he realized they had been taken so she could see just how much he was invested in saving and protecting them and he didn’t end it until he had Cas take their memories.

Once they were both back awake Dean shot Gabriel a glare. “Tell me you didn’t show her everything that I saw flashing through my head,” he said warningly.

“You wanted her to see what she didn’t get to before. I showed her what she needed to see,” Gabriel said not at all apologetic. 

Lisa knew why Dean was upset. She knew that he never wanted her to see him in hunting mode and the way he tortured the demons to find out where they were was pretty brutal, but she had no sympathy at all for demons at the moment. What she saw was a desperate man pulling out all the stops to save his family, no matter the consequences. She knew what he was talking about giving back to Ben though. She winced as she remembered the slap he had given Ben to pull him out of his stupor, but she could tell that it wasn’t hard enough to hurt him. He was pretty harsh with the barking orders and the things that he made Ben do, but there was nothing else he could have done in the circumstances and along with the memories she could feel his emotions. She knew how terrified he was, and how his heart broke at putting Ben in that situation, and she was even amazed to feel that when he paused to get Sam out, leaving her bleeding, his concern for his brother was secondary to his concern for her and Ben. He was thinking about how Sam could help them get out. Needless to say, she was finding forgiving him so much easier. She felt the need to end the stare-down between Dean and Gabriel though. “Gabriel’s right. I needed to know, and I’m glad he showed me.” Dean looked at her with pain in his eyes and she knew what he was thinking. “I don’t think any less of you for any of it. Just the opposite in fact.” 

“So what’s the verdict on the kid’s memories?” Gabriel asked before another argument could become secondary to the main question. 

“Would it be possible to give him everything except that whole ordeal?” she asked. 

“It would be possible, but he would realize that there were gaps,” Gabriel told her. 

“Then let’s just do that,” she said. 

Gabriel wanted to argue, but before he could make up his mind to do so, the doorbell rang. Lisa went to answer it and let the neighbor in. He was there to pick up a book she had promised to let him borrow. As soon as they stepped into the living room, Gabriel cursed and cloaked himself before he could be noticed as the man’s eyes turned black when he saw Dean. “Winchester! I knew if we staked out here long enough you’d come back for your son.”

Lisa gasped and was thankfully far enough away from the demon for Dean to grab her and push her behind him. “Exorcizamus te. Omnis imundus spiritus,” he started only for the demon to throw out an arm and fling both him and Lisa across the room. Dean didn’t stop though. “Omnis satanica potestas,” was all he got out before he was halfway up the wall and his voice was cut off. 

Ben had heard the commotion and started coming downstairs. “Mom!” he cried seeing her lying on the floor surrounded by pieces of the broken table. 

“Go back upstairs!” she yelled frantically and Ben seemed torn. 

When the demon was distracted by Ben, he loosened his grip on Dean’s throat enough for him to choke out, “A little help here Gabriel?” 

Gabriel had been cloaked in the corner, hoping against hope that Dean could handle it. He knew that smiting the demon wouldn’t be good for him, but when Dean called for help, there was nothing else he could do. Gabriel appeared behind the demon and slapped his hand on top of its head and it fizzled and died. Dean fell to the floor, but so did Gabriel with a scream of pain. “Gabriel! You okay man?” 

“Do I look okay to you?” Gabriel snapped as he curled up in the fetal position trying to fight the pain. 

“Shit,” Dean ran a hand through his hair as he paced. He had to think of something. “Okay. They know where you live and Gabriel is in no shape to help right now.”

“Bunker,” Gabriel managed to say. 

“Can you get us there?” Dean asked worriedly. 

“Yeah,” Gabriel croaked. 

“What’s wrong with him?” Lisa asked on the verge of panic herself. 

“I’ll explain once we’re safe. Will you two come with me? Please. We can figure out what to do next once we’re out of the line of fire here,” Dean begged. 

“Yeah. Okay. Come here Ben,” she told him. 

“Just touch him and he will be able to take us, but gently. He’s hurt pretty bad,” Dean told them and they did. All Gabriel could think of at that moment was getting back to Sam so he aimed for the library of the bunker, knowing that’s where Sam would be. 

When Gabriel reappeared on the floor, Dean, Lisa, and Ben crouched around him, Sam jumped up from his seat. “Gabriel!” he cried as he fell to his knees beside him and the other three stepped back. 

“Easy, Samsquatch,” he croaked. 

“What the hell happened?” Sam turned to look at Dean accusingly. 

“They were being watched by demons. Gabriel had to step in to save us,” Dean said apologetically. 

“Damnit!” Sam snapped. “I knew I shouldn’t have let him go until he was better.”

“You’re hovering again, Sammykins,” Gabriel managed in an almost normal voice as the pain was starting to ease slightly. 

“Can you blame me?” Sam asked. 

“No, but stop it. None of us expected trouble. Shit happens. Now help me to bed please,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam thought for a minute. This was just like before. They had to figure out the best way to move him by hurting him the least. “Can you walk at all?” Sam asked. 

“Maybe,” Gabriel said. 

“Ok. Let’s give it a shot,” Sam said throwing Gabriel’s arm over his shoulder and pulling him up, doing his best to ignore the whimpers of pain it was causing. He got him on his feet and started to let go, but Gabriel started to wobble a bit on his feet. Sam moved in front of him and said, “Hold on to my arms.” That would give Gabriel control over how much pressure was exerted and how much he needed. 

As they shuffled out the door, Lisa turned to Dean. “Ok, what was that?” 

At the same time, Ben said incredulously, “Demons?” 

Dean looked back and forth between Lisa and Ben trying to figure out who to answer first. Lisa took the choice out of his hands though when she turned to Ben and said, “There are a lot of bad things in the world like demons. We’ll explain everything to you later, but right now I need to talk to Dean.” Unfortunately, they didn’t get a chance to restore Ben’s memories before all hell broke loose. 

Normally, Ben would have argued about that, but he seemed to sense that now wasn’t the time. On top of everything else, he had heard everyone calling the other being Gabriel and saw his powers and he wondered if it was the angel Gabriel. Either way his mind had enough to keep it occupied while Dean and Lisa talked. 

Seeing that Ben wasn’t going to argue, Dean turned to answer Lisa. “Not too long ago, Sammy and I got cornered by Amara…that’s the big bad I mentioned. Gabriel came in to save us and offered himself up as a distraction for us to escape…again. This time he survived, but she tortured him pretty bad until we were able to get him out. He’s just barely started to use his powers again, and I guess that was too much for him at this stage of his recovery.”

Lisa took a second to wrap her head around that and while she was Ben couldn’t help but ask, “Is he the angel Gabriel?” 

Dean turned to Ben and nodded before turning back to Lisa who asked, “So what now?” 

“Well you’re going to have to move. I’m sure Gabriel, once he’s up and around can help with the financial aspect of it and make sure that you don’t get hit too hard by it. I’ll set you up with a computer if you want so you can start looking for places. We’ll have to see if Gabriel can do anything else to help keep you safe once he’s able like wards or something. I don’t know what all he’s capable of, but I’m sure he can at least ward you from being found like me and Sammy are.” 

“Okay. That sounds good,” Lisa said. “But what about our stuff?” 

“I’m sure Gabriel will either be able to retrieve it or replace it,” Dean told her. 

“And are you planning to actually ask Gabriel any of this or just volunteer him,” Sam asked with his arms crossed from the doorway. 

“Ask. Of course. And only when he’s better,” he told Sam holding up his arms in surrender. 

Sam let out a weary sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m just a little high-strung right now,” he admitted apologetically as he sank into the nearest chair which happened to be the one he had just vacated. He looked at Lisa and said, “I owe you an apology too. The last time we saw each other, I was kinda missing my soul and was a real ass.”

“You were…huh?” she asked. 

“Long story,” Sam muttered.

“Aren’t they all,” she rolled her eyes. 

“Well long story short, I don’t know if Dean told you I went to hell.” She nodded. “Well when I got pulled back out, my soul kinda got left behind. I got it back later, and I was horrified at the way I acted when I was without it, so I’m sorry.” 

“I…um…okay…I guess you’re forgiven. I mean it wasn’t exactly your fault right?” She remembered meeting him when Ben was attacked by the changeling and he had seemed very kind then, so she would try to forget the callous jerk that she met after that. 

“Hey Ben. Don’t mess with those books. You can grab a book from this section over here if you want,” Dean called out seeing Ben getting too close to the spell books. Lisa turned around and looked to see what books Dean was allowing Ben to read and nodded when she saw that they were fantasy books. Ben grabbed The Lord of the Rings trilogy. “Hey Sammy. Would you mind getting Ben set up in a room. Lisa and I need to talk privately.”

“Sure no problem,” Sam said motioning Ben out the door after getting a nod from Lisa. 

Once they were alone, Dean closed the door, knowing that the library was pretty much soundproofed and he spun on Lisa. “Why did that demon seem to think that Ben was my son?”


	13. Chapter 13

Lisa sputtered a moment and that was all the answer Dean needed. “Damnit Lisa! You should have told me,” he said exasperatedly. 

“Would it have made a difference?” she snapped. 

“Hell yes it would have made a difference. I left because I thought being out of your lives would keep you safe. If I had known he was my son I would have known that he would never be safe and it would have been better to stay close,” he said heatedly. 

“What do you mean never be safe?” she asked alarmed. 

“My family have been hunters for something like hundreds of years. Demons and monsters tend to have long memories and any of them would kill to get their hands on a Winchester. Any Winchester. Damnit Lisa!” 

“You said you left to help your brother,” she told him, trying to catch him in a lie. 

“That was part of it, yeah, but it was also to keep you and Ben safe. If I had known that it was a choice between Sam or you two, I would have chosen you two. I thought I was helping everyone by leaving you. That’s the only reason I did it,” Dean ran a hand through his hair in frustration. 

Lisa finally began to realize that they had both made mistakes, and that he had done what he thought was best with the information that he had. She was at fault for him not having the correct information. The idea that they had been watched by demons for years cut her to the quick. If they hadn’t been waiting to get Dean too…she didn’t even want to consider what would have happened. Still… “If you hadn’t erased our memories, we may have recognized the demons,” she told him. 

“If I had known they still had any reason to be after you, I never would have,” Dean shot back. 

“You can’t just go around changing people’s memories,” she refused to back down from that point and now that the urgent stuff was out of the way, they could focus on that a little more. 

“I get it. I know I screwed up, and I apologized and fixed it. I’ll keep apologizing if that’s what you want but I don’t know what more I can do,” Dean said defeated. 

Lisa nodded. He had a point. “Once Ben’s memories are fixed, mostly, we can talk about giving us another shot, but I swear Dean, if you even think about doing anything like this again…” she let the threat hang. 

Dean sighed in relief. It was just a promise to talk, but it was enough for now. He hated having to rock the boat again already, but it had to be done though. “About Ben’s memories…”

“No Dean. He doesn’t need to remember that,” Lisa said firmly. 

“Just hear me out. Him being a Winchester changes things. He’s going to be grown and move out one day. We can’t watch him forever. He may end up in a life or death situation again and he will need to know what to do. He’ll need to know what it feels like if he’s going to survive it. He may need that experience someday. I understand what you said about not messing with people’s memories, but you’re talking about doing the same to him,” Dean told her hoping that she would be able to see that. 

She sighed heavily and paced for a few minutes. “I see your point. But how about we do what you did with me. Give him the rest of his memories and then let him choose?” she offered a compromise that she hoped that he would take. 

“Fair enough,” Dean agreed. He would make his case to Ben. 

“Is there anything we can do to keep him safer?” Lisa asked. 

“Aside from keeping him locked up here under the wards?” Dean asked wryly. Lisa gave him a look that seemed to say, ‘don’t be an idiot’ so he shrugged. “Other than asking Gabriel for some wards, not that I can think of. Well and asking Gabriel to keep an ear out for prayers, but that might be asking a little much. I’ll pull every influence I can to bear on that though and I’m sure Sammy will too.”

“He didn’t seem so willing to get Gabriel’s help earlier,” Lisa pointed out. 

“He’s just in motherhen mode at the moment. As long as we don’t ask Gabriel for anything until he’s well, Sammy will be on our side.” She looked skeptically at him. “You have to understand something. This thing with them has been simmering for a long time. The last time we saw Gabriel before last week he threw himself at an enemy he couldn’t beat and literally died to give Sam a chance to escape. Well me too, but we both know he did it for Sam, not me. Then he comes back to life and does the exact same thing and barely survives, but is hurt badly. When we managed to get Gabriel out of there, he was unconscious for days other than screaming and twitching. We didn’t know if he would wake up at all. He was flayed alive, and then the first time Gabriel tries to do something more strenuous than read a book, this happens. Sam is a nervous wreck and I don’t really blame him.”

Lisa took a moment to try to put herself in Sam’s position and she found that she could definitely understand his position. She just hoped that Dean was right and he would come around. From the little bit she saw of their interactions, she could guess that if Sam wasn’t on board, Gabriel wouldn’t do it. When Sam came in a few minutes later Lisa decided to be proactive. “Can I talk to you a minute?” she asked him hopefully. 

Dean looked between them and when Sam nodded Dean said, “I’ll go check on Ben. Did you give him any ground rules?” He needed to know if it had been done. 

“I told him not to leave the main floor, and not to go anywhere in the library except the fiction section,” Sam told him. 

“Ok that works. Where’d you set him up?” 

“The room on the opposite side of yours,” Sam told him and Dean nodded and headed out. 

Lisa’s curiosity once again sidetracked her from the intended conversation. “How many floors are there and why can’t we go to other floors?” she asked curiously. 

“There are four floors and the lower floors are ingredient storage, archives, and artifacts that are too powerful to be in the open…stuff like that.” Sam wasn’t going to mention the dungeon if he could avoid it. 

“I’m guessing you don’t mean cooking ingredients,” she said sardonically. 

“Spell ingredients. Most of them with quite a bit of power themselves and one wrong move can have disastrous consequences,” Sam told her. 

“Got it. So stay on the main floor,” she confirmed. 

“And don’t mess with unknown books. There’s some creepy stuff in here. The old society was a little off their rockers,” he said amusedly. “I once picked up a book that seeped acid all over my hands. Not a pretty sight. Other than parts of the library the main floor is good as long as you use common sense which I’m sure you have,” he laughed. 

“I’m guessing there’s a story there?” she asked curiously. She wanted to get a better idea of what his definition of common sense was. 

“When we first found this place and pulled it out of mothballs, Dean was playing with one of the swords and assumed it wasn’t sharpened and cut himself,” Sam told her. 

She rolled her eyes. “I can believe that.”

Once the silence settled over the room again, Sam said, “but I’m guessing you didn’t want to talk to me to get old stories. What’s up?”

“Right. Well. I know what you must be thinking, Gabriel being in such bad shape coming back with us…”

Sam cut her off. “It wasn’t your fault. Like Gabe said. Shit happens. It couldn’t have been planned for, and I can’t even say that he should have waited until he was better because with the demons watching you, who knew when they would have gotten bored or given up. I’m glad you guys are here and safe really. And I want you to stay safe. I just don’t want anyone pushing Gabriel to do things he’s not healed enough for unless it’s an immediate emergency, you know?” 

“Yeah. I can understand that. And I won’t be asking him to do anything until he’s well, but I just want to know what he would be willing to do when he can,” Lisa told him.

“That’s okay. And I will make sure he does whatever he can to protect you and Ben…when he can…though he probably would anyway. He always makes a big show of not caring and not wanting to help, but he would never let anyone get hurt if he could help it. Well not unless they deserve it.”

“Okay. Thank you Sam,” Lisa said gratefully. 

“You’re family. Regardless of how any relationships between you guys and Dean work out, he cares about you and that makes you family. And we would do anything for our family,” Sam told her sincerely. 

She couldn’t help but hug him after that and he returned it warmly. “I should go find Dean and Ben and see where I’ll be sleeping tonight. It’s been a very long day,” she said tiredly.


	14. Chapter 14

Lisa woke the next morning to find Sam and Gabriel walking down the hall, Sam walking slowly next to Gabriel who was hobbling along and holding onto the wall for support. She started to reach out to help him but stopped when Sam shook his head at her. Sam wasn’t sure how she would take Gabriel’s sniping if she tried to help. Lisa hesitated a moment then nodded and headed off towards the kitchen. 

Sam got Gabriel settled in the library and headed to the kitchen himself to get him and Gabriel something to eat. When he saw Lisa there he said, “Sorry about that. Gabriel can be pretty touchy about any perceived weakness on his part. Treating him like he’s fragile tends to set him off a bit.”

She rolled her eyes. “Typical man then,” she joked. 

“Worse than that,” Sam laughed. “He’s used to being the most powerful being on earth so multiply that times a hundred.”

She shook her head exasperatedly. “He let you help him to bed yesterday though,” she pointed out. 

“Which is how I know he was really bad off, and worried more than anything else,” he told her. She nodded as if that made sense. 

When she saw him cutting a large piece of cake she raised an eyebrow. “Cake for breakfast?”

Sam chuckled a bit. “As an archangel, his taste buds work a little different than human’s. He generally only eats sweets. You should see his pancakes.” At her curious look he explained. “Chocolate sauce in the batter, chocolate chips in the pancakes and slathered in chocolate syrup. At least he doesn’t have to worry about rotting teeth.”

She just shook her head again. She had a lot to learn about this strange family, and she knew that if she and Dean did make another go of it, Sam and Gabriel would be a part of their lives so she might as well get to know them while she could and Sam seemed to really enjoy talking about Gabriel. It was clearly evident how much he loved the archangel. 

Sam finished getting their breakfasts together. “Gabe and I will be in the library most of the day researching probably so just let me know if you need anything and feel free to come by and chat if you get bored.”

“Thanks Sam,” she said with a warm smile.

 

It was about an hour later when she found herself headed for the library out of sheer boredom. She stopped in the doorway to watch them for a few minutes. She didn’t feel bad about eavesdropping because a) she wasn’t hiding. She was in plain sight. And b) they were researching not talking about anything secret. Lisa was the type of person who was always observing everything around her to get as clear a picture as possible and seeing how people interact those they are comfortable with could tell you a lot about them. It had become such a habit by this point in her life that she probably couldn’t stop if she tried. 

As she stopped in the doorway she saw Sam scribbling something out on a piece of paper, but she was too far to see what it was. “So something like this then?” Sam asked Gabriel.

Gabriel leaned over it to look more closely. “Not quite. See this extra loop you added here? That will add a whole new dimension to the spell and make it more difficult to control without adding anything beneficial to the effects.”

“Oh. Right,” Sam said a bit sheepishly. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Oh give yourself a break Samsquatch. You’re trying to cram lifetimes of advanced spell theory into a few months here. Even your brilliant mind is gonna blow out sometimes.”

About that time the bunker’s alarms went off and the sound of locks clicking echoed throughout the place as it went into lockdown. Sam jumped up and ran out the door headed for the control room. Lisa followed him, terrified of what was going on now. She was so worried that she didn’t even laugh when Dean came tearing into the room in his robe and socks, still tying the robe around him, with Ben right behind him looking sleepily curious. Gabriel had beaten them all though, having flown there, knowing that walking would take him too long. He didn’t beat them by much though.

“Somebody kill the alarm!” Gabriel shouted over the noise as he was bent over the map in the center of the room. 

Dean ran over and hit the switch and the noise quieted, but the flashing red lights were still going off as they would continue to do until the event was over. “What’s going on?” Dean asked going over to the map and leaning over it next to Sam and Gabriel. Lisa and Ben moved up close too. They had no idea what they were looking at but felt the need to look anyway. 

“Looks like something big is going down in Israel,” Sam said pointing to the growing blotch on the map. 

“Amara?” Dean asked. 

“Probably,” Gabriel said. “Seems fitting. She’s trying to get father’s attention, that’s the place to go.”

“But what’s she doing? That’s the question,” Sam said as he turned to check some of the other machines to see if they held any more answers. 

“I don’t know, but if it’s that big someone had to have noticed. I’ll check the news reports,” Dean said heading out to grab a computer. He didn’t know anything about most of those machines in there anyway. He would leave that to Sam and Gabriel. They could figure out the how and Dean would find the what.

“I hope the lockdown doesn’t last too long. I was gonna send Dean for some groceries today,” Sam muttered. 

“Lockdown?” Lisa asked nervously. 

“This place is designed to go into lockdown mode when there is serious supernatural activity as a precaution. It’s the most secure site in the world and anyone untoward getting their hands on all the power this bunker holds would be a very bad thing, so it protects itself. No one or nothing in or out.”

“How long will it last?” She asked nervously. 

“Until the activity calms down, but don’t worry. It shouldn’t be more than a day or two and worst case scenario, we have enough supplies here to last us a week and by then Gabriel should be in good enough shape to snap up anything we need so we’ll be alright even if it does take a while,” Sam assured her. 

She nodded, feeling a little better. They were safe and would stay that way. That was all she cared about at the moment. Right about then Dean came back in carrying his laptop. “Looks like she’s upping the ante. And I don’t think her first strike to the Heart of St. Gabriel in Nazareth was a coincidence,” he looked at Gabriel.

“I’m not surprised. I did distract her enough to allow you two to escape and then you pulled me out of her grasp too. Not to mention I’m the last archangel alive. The only one left who helped to imprison her so long ago. Dear old auntie can hold a grudge like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Auntie?” Lisa asked confused. 

“Yeah. Amara is kinda…um…god’s sister,” Sam told her. Dean absentmindedly kicked a chair behind her before she fell down. 

“Yeah his older, more powerful, pissed off sister,” Gabriel interjected. “But we digress. You said first strike?”

“Yeah. She’s also taken out the tomb of the prophets so far,” Dean told him. 

“Oh yeah. She’s definitely including me in her vendetta.” 

“How so?” Sam asked curiously.

“I was father’s messenger, which means before I left, I was in charge of the prophets. She’s trying to draw both me and dad out now,” Gabriel deduced.

“Guys, these casualty reports are really getting up there,” Dean said nervously. 

“There has to be something we can do,” Lisa said helplessly. 

“Nope. There is nothing and no one on the planet that is anywhere near a match for her and we’ve barely scratched the surface as far as weakening her enough to be able to cause any damage,” Gabriel told her apologetically. 

“Then let me help with the research,” Lisa offered. She couldn’t just sit by while scores of people were dying. 

“Me too,” Ben said. He had learned a long time ago that the best way to be able to get information about serious issues was to be as silent as possible and hope everyone forgot you were there so that’s what he had been doing. 

He got a double “No” from both of his parents though. 

Gabriel stood up for him though. “Hang on. Maybe he can be of some help. There are just too many books for me and Sam to go through. Granted neither of them know enough to start building theories and spells, but if they could sort the books…figure out which ones have useful information, that would be a big help.”

“We’d make sure they didn’t get any dangerous books of course,” Sam assured them. He could see Gabriel’s point. 

“Make sure Ben doesn’t get any graphic ones either,” Dean said warningly. 

“Absolutely,” Sam said. “We’ll stick him with the straight reference works.”

Dean looked to Lisa for her opinion and she gave a reluctant nod. “Great. Deano keep us posted on any relevant information about Amara’s rampage. If we get lucky we’ll find some sort of pattern, and be able to send out a warning to get people out of the line of fire.”

Dean nodded and figured if everyone else was going to be in the library, he might as well set up shop there too, and that way he could keep an eye on what books Ben ended up with. Gabriel took his seat, not really up to lugging loads of books around while Sam started gathering up books for everyone. Gabriel took the opportunity to brief the newcomers on what they were looking for and what sort of information might be helpful. 

Sam came back with the first load which happened to be the first ten of fourty volumes of Encyclopedia Magica for Ben to start on, and then went back for another load, coming back with four extremely thick, unnamed, and aged books for Lisa to start with. He and Gabriel were still pouring through advanced theory and their books were still out on the table so he sat down to pick up where they left off.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been updating so slowly. I usually get some writing done at work between calls, but work has been insanely busy this week. Look for plenty of updates over the weekend though :)

A few minutes later, Dean got up and walked over to Sam and Gabriel. “You guys need to see this,” he said plopping the laptop in front of them. “Not you,” he told Ben when he tried to get up to see too. He would hear it and that would be bad enough. Lisa did crowd around them to see what was going on though. 

There was a video on loop. It looked like it was shot from someone’s cell phone. A woman with long flowing brown hair and chiseled features walking along the wailing wall, trailing her hand over it as it exploded in her wake. There were thousands of people there, most screaming in either terror or pain. Those in the front few rows looked like they were killed instantly in the blast and the rest were getting hit with debris. She walked the entire length of the wall and only when it was all destroyed did she turn her face to the heavens and scream, “What will it take to get your attention! How much more must I destroy before you face me!” At that the video went back to the beginning and Sam pushed the laptop away distastefully. He didn’t need to read the reports to know what they said. People were panicking and had no explanations. Eventually some expert in something would come forward with some perfectly logical way it could happen and be completely wrong. “Well at least we have confirmation that it’s Amara now,” he said. 

“I need to take a walk,” Gabriel said getting up. Sam looked at him worriedly. Gabriel was still barely walking after all, but Gabriel waved him off. He would manage. 

Lisa hadn’t moved since the beginning of the video and had her hands pressed over her mouth and her eyes filled with tears. “Can…can you really stop her?” 

“We’re going to try our damnedest,” Sam said firmly, jaw clenched as he turned back to his research. Gabriel would be back soon. It was easy to ignore suffering and death when you weren’t faced with it, but actually seeing it like that was more difficult than Gabriel would ever admit to anyone. Even Sam. Sam knew of course. He could see it in Gabriel’s eyes and the tension of his shoulders, but he wouldn’t say anything. He would allow the archangel his illusions. 

“I’ll go whip up some lunch,” Dean said making his own exit. He needed to do something to feel useful right now. 

By the time Dean got back with plates for everyone and a refilled candy bowl for Gabriel, the archangel was hobbling back in. Sam could just barely make out a little redness around his eyes and only because he was looking for it. 

Dean pulled a few books off the shelves too. It was one thing making Sam and Gabriel do all the research themselves, but he felt really bad with the civilians doing some of the heavy lifting and him just sitting in the background. He still took a mostly support role, seeing that he was still the slowest, but he consoled himself with the fact that he actually understood most of what he was reading so he was distracted easier than Lisa or Ben when he found something truly interesting. The pile of paper scraps they were using for bookmarks was rapidly dwindling as the day went on. In most of the books there were only a few pages of relevant information so they were marking the pages accordingly. 

“I was thinking,” Dean spoke up a little before dinner. “Maybe we should get Cas in on this too?”

“No,” Gabriel shook his head. “He’s doing what he needs to do. Keeping the rest of the angels out of the line of fire.”

“But maybe they could help? I mean with their combined power and whatever we come up with…” Sam suggested. 

“They would be slaughtered,” Gabriel told them. “We’re not looking for power here. The combined power of every being on this earth wouldn’t be enough to slow her down. We’re looking for finesse. Something that angels aren’t made for.” 

“But we will still need power to pull it off,” Dean pointed out. 

“Maybe, but they are expendable to her. It would be like putting her in a shooting gallery. She wants you alive Dean, she wants to torture the hell out of me, thus keeping me alive, Sam is borderline. She wants him out of the way but needs to keep him handy to use against you, but the rest of them? They’d be target practice.”

“But if she’s busy with them…” Dean started before he stopped himself, earning himself a smack from Lisa. 

“Yes. We’re all aware that you don’t give a shit how many angels die, but let’s not forget that they are my brothers,” Gabriel snarled. 

“Gabriel…” Sam started to apologize. 

“Forget it Sammy. I need to go lay down,” Gabriel said standing and heading out of the room. He was walking much better than he had been that morning, still slow and unsteady, but not using the wall for support any longer. 

Once Gabriel was out of the room, Sam rounded on Dean. “What the hell Dean? How could you even suggest using the angels as sacrifices?”

“I didn’t think about it!” Dean protested. “I was brainstorming out loud. I realized it was a bad idea as soon as it came out which is why I stopped talking.”

“You should have stopped talking sooner,” Sam snapped as he headed out after Gabriel. 

Sam stopped outside of Gabriel’s door and knocked lightly. “C’mon in Sammy,” he heard from inside. 

He stepped in to see Gabriel lying on his back on the bed, hands behind his head and ankles crossed, staring at the ceiling. “I’m sorry about Dean. He engages his mouth before his brain.”

“I know,” Gabriel said sadly. “I know that he would never actually suggest it. Just the idea…I mean, things are finally settling down up there. They are finally finding their way and now this. I want them out of it. I want to keep them safely tucked away where they can’t get hurt.” He turned to look at Sam. “I want to keep you safely tucked away too. I just wish I could.” Sam started to sit down in the chair next to Gabriel’s bed, but Gabriel grabbed his wrist before he could. “Lay down with me?”

“Are you sure you’re…” Sam trailed off letting Gabriel finish the thought. 

“I’m fine. Just go easy,” Gabriel assured him. 

Sam lowered himself gently to the bed and Gabriel curled up to his side and sighed contentedly. Sam wrapped his arm around Gabriel and rested his hand gently on the archangel’s hip, turning his head to rest against Gabriel’s soft sandy hair. “I love you Gabriel,” Sam whispered. 

“And I love you, my Samshine. I just want to get this over with so we can start our life together.” 

“I want that too,” Sam said softly, pressing a gentle kiss to the archangel’s brow. 

They lay there like that for about another twenty minutes before Dean came bursting in. “I think I’ve found it!” 

They both jumped at the intrusion and Gabriel winced. Sam sent him an apologetic look as he said, “Found what?”

“The key. Exactly what we need,” Dean said cheerily. “You ever hear of a hand of god?” 

Gabriel looked confused for a moment. “But they’ve all been lost to time for centuries,” he pointed out. 

“Exactly,” Dean said as if expecting them to get it. He shouldn’t have faulted them for not getting it. He’d had a little bit to puzzle it out, and they were getting it fresh. When he realized they weren’t getting it he got impatient. “Lost to ‘time’,” he emphasized and saw the dawning comprehension on both of their faces. “Once you’re feeling up to it of course,” he added hastily. 

“So let me get this straight. You’re suggesting we track down when and where one of these items was last seen and I hop through time and retrieve it?” Gabriel asked somewhat awed. 

“Bingo,” Dean said smugly. 

“Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. That’s the second good idea you’ve had in a week. That has to be a record,” Gabriel said getting a one finger salute in response. “It won’t get us all the way there, but it’ll be the backbone of everything else. Now we have something to work around rather than starting from scratch. Good job Deano. Tell everyone to take the rest of the night off. We’ll meet back up in the morning and set a new game plan.”

Dean returned to the library to curious looks from Lisa and Ben. The way he had dropped his book and gone tearing out of there had them understandably eager to hear what he had to say. He gave them the cliffs notes version and relayed Gabriel’s suggestion to take the rest of the night off. It was hard for him to see Ben walk away like Dean was nothing to him, but he dealt with it. He and Lisa had decided not to tell Ben that he was his father until after his memories were restored. 

Dean had let Ben use his old laptop that he had recently replaced and the teenager was now in the living room browsing Netflix as Dean went to start dinner. Dean took a plate to Sam, knowing that Gabriel should be resting right now, and knowing that Sam wasn’t going to be leaving his side for a while. He returned to the kitchen to sit down and eat with Lisa and Ben and tried to ignore the pain of longing he felt for the days when this was every night. He just hoped he would be able to get it back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been working on putting more dialogue into my writing so I'm eager to hear what you guys think. Too much? Still not enough? How's the balance between the dialogue and the rest? You guys are my critics and your feedback helps me grow as a writer so please...feel free to criticize.


	16. Chapter 16

The next morning, Gabriel woke to find himself still cradled in Sam’s arms and he let out a soft, blissful sigh as he burrowed deeper. He was glad that his grace healed at a much faster rate while his body was at rest, because that meant that he woke feeling much better than he had when he had fallen asleep. He was roughly back to where he had been the day they had gone for Lisa and Ben. He would be able to restore Ben’s memories today, but most importantly, he could finally touch his hunter normally and immediately made big plans for tonight. He was tempted to try now, but he was still a bit stiff. It would be much better after being up and around all day. He had been waiting ten years for this. He wanted it to be a moment to remember. 

When Sam started to stir a few minutes later, Gabriel lifted his head and woke the hunter with a deep kiss. Sam’s arm’s instinctively tightened around the archangel as he returned it. Gabriel could tell the moment he was fully awake because his grip suddenly loosened and pulled out of the kiss. “Shit. Sorry Gabe. You okay?” he asked. 

“I was until you stopped,” he pouted. Sam looked at him as if he were trying to get a read on him. “Really. I’m back up to human level strength. As long as you’re not too rough, we’re good.” Gabriel had no delusions that Sam couldn’t snap a normal human in half if he really let himself go, so he felt the need to add that qualifier. 

Sam gave a little snicker and pulled Gabriel back to him, kissing him soundly and the archangel hummed contentedly. After a few minutes though, Sam pulled back again. “We should get up and get started,” he said disappointedly. 

“I know,” Gabriel grumbled. “I could really get used to waking up like this,” he hinted. 

Sam grinned. “Then I’ll make sure you get the chance to,” he said pressing one more short kiss to Gabriel’s lips before getting up and heading for the shower. Gabriel gave a dissatisfied huff at the now vacant spot next to him before he too climbed out of bed. 

As he headed down the hall, he passed Lisa headed for the kitchen. “Lisa. Just the person I need to see,” he said cheerfully. She looked at him curiously. “I can fix Ben’s memories up today if that’s still what you want.”

She nodded. It was making things more difficult than they should be having normal interactions around the teenager who didn’t remember Dean or the over a year that he spent with them. “Yeah. We should probably wait until after dinner though. There are going to be a lot of long conversations after that and I don’t want it to get in the way of our research.”

Gabriel sighed heavily. “I understand where you’re coming from, but you have to remember that there is more to life than this research. We can’t just put everything else on hold any more than we have to.”

“I know, Gabriel. But if something can wait until some down time, then it should. Dean’s already relayed the whole marathon vs sprint conversation to me and that makes sense, but it really would be better tonight anyway, when he can sleep on it soon afterwards.”

“If you’re sure,” Gabriel said, getting a nod in response so he just shrugged. He was walking back towards the library before he remembered where she had been headed. “Don’t worry about breakfast,” he said as he snapped his fingers. “It’s in the library.”

She turned and walked with him to the library and her eyes went wide at the spread. It was like a full continental breakfast. “So all your powers are back?” she asked. 

“Not all. I’ve still got a ways to go. But I’m getting there,” Gabriel told her with a smile. 

“So creating things out of thin air…” she trailed off letting the rest of her question ask itself. 

“Is just the least of my abilities. It’s like flying. Instinctual almost. Memory modification is also ridiculously easy. Things like creating alternate dimensions, travelling through time, smiting, and so on are a little more difficult,” Gabriel explained. 

“Wow. That’s….wow.”

Sam came into the library at that and slid up behind Gabriel, wrapping his arms around the archangel’s stomach. “Pretty impressive isn’t he,” he said proudly nuzzling Gabriel’s neck. 

“You better believe it,” Gabriel said with a chuckle as he turned his head to give Sam a quick kiss before they took their seats and attacked the breakfast. Only the smell of food wafting through the bunker could have roused the teenager and the mental teenager from bed this early in the morning and before long they came stumbling in, wiping sleep from their eyes. 

Dean took one look at the breakfast spread and cut his eyes to Gabriel. “You’re back?” 

“Partially,” Gabriel told him. 

“So you can…” he trailed off not wanting to be specific with Ben in the room. 

“Tonight,” Gabriel said with a nod. 

“Hey did anyone bother to see if we’re still in lockdown?” Sam asked. 

“I checked when I went to bed last night and we were, but not this morning no,” Dean said. 

“I’ll go check,” Ben offered. He wanted to get another look at that room anyway. 

“Just don’t touch anything,” Dean called after him. He was back a few minutes later and told them that the red lights had stopped blinking so that meant they were free. At least for the moment. “I should probably go do some shopping before she throws another hissy fit. 

“I’ve got my powers back now Deano. I can snap up anything we need,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“And if your powers go down again? No offense Gabriel, but I don’t really want to rely on that,” Dean told him. 

“Well I can…”

“Go ahead and go shopping Dean,” Sam cut Gabriel off and gave him a look to keep quiet. 

Once Dean was gone, Gabriel looked at Sam curiously so the younger hunter explained. “Dean gets a little claustrophobic. It doesn’t matter that he was going to be here anyway, the idea of being locked in and unable to leave would have made him pretty antsy.”

“Okay. And if she throws another ‘hissy fit’ while he’s gone?” Gabriel said pointedly. 

“We just hope she won’t and if she does he can hole up in a motel until the lockdown is over,” Sam told him so Gabriel just shrugged and let it go. 

They settled into their daily research, Gabriel giving them the new guidelines to search for now that they had a base to work from and they were able to narrow down the relevant information even further. Dean got back just before lunch was a little disappointed when he realized that Gabriel having his powers back meant that he didn’t get a break to prepare the meals, but he wasn’t going to be the only one to complain. Not in front of Lisa and Ben anyway, so he just took his seat back at the table and started leafing through books. 

After dinner, Ben headed out to get the laptop. They all knew he wouldn’t have long with it, but Gabriel needed to ask, “How do you want to do this?” 

“Better to hit him with it cold like you did me. If we try to explain it first, it will just cause a lot of confusion. Better to give him the memories back and then we can answer questions,” Lisa said. She had been thinking about it a lot. 

Gabriel nodded. He agreed with her, but would have followed her lead had she chosen differently. He walked out to the living room and placed his hand on Ben’s head, knocking him out as his restored memories flooded through his mind. “You want me to stick around?” Gabriel asked them. 

“Nah. It’s okay. It should probably be just the three of us,” Dean told him. 

“Okay but once I leave I will be unavailable until morning, so if you need any more healing you’ll have to suffer until then,” Gabriel warned. 

“He won’t kill me. Anything else I deserve to suffer with,” Dean told him seriously so Gabriel nodded and went looking for his moose-man.


	17. Chapter 17

Dean and Lisa sat on the couch waiting nervously for Ben to wake up. When he did he looked around confused for a minute before his eyes settled on Dean and Dean could see the fire building up in them. “I know you have a lot of questions and I’ll do my best to explain,” he said trying to avoid getting hit again. 

Ben just looked away trying not to let Dean see the hurt in his eyes. “You don’t need to explain. I wish you had just left rather than taking my memories though.”

Dean responded to that immediately. It was clear that Ben thought that he had done it because he didn’t want them anymore. “No, Ben. I do need to explain because you’re wrong. I didn’t do it because I didn’t love you. I did it because I did.” Ben looked at him warily curious. “You don’t have all your memories back. We’ll leave the last part up to you if you want them back. You and your mother were kidnapped by demons that were trying to get to me. I thought that if you were out of my life completely and didn’t even remember me, that you couldn’t be used as leverage again. I thought I was keeping you safe.”

“Well the demons were there anyway, so good job,” Ben said bitterly. 

“I know. I didn’t have all the facts when I made my decision. I mean my decision would have been wrong anyway and I’m sorry. I definitely screwed up there even if I’d had all the facts, but turned out I just put you in even more danger. See Ben, I didn’t know that you were my son.” Dean paused a moment to let that sink in. 

“So that’s why I got my memories back?” he snapped. 

“No!” Dean ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I was planning to give you your memories back, with your mother’s permission, all along. Look. Mine or not, it doesn’t make me love you any differently,” Dean assured him. 

“But because I’m yours I’m in more danger?” Ben asked.

“Yeah. Unfortunately. Demons, angels, some other creatures, can sense bloodlines. They will all know that you’re a Winchester with one look and they will take every opportunity to get to me or to get revenge on the things either me and Sam or our ancestors have done. That’s why that demon was watching you. It must have realized you didn’t have your memories of me, but was banking on me coming back one day. It would have killed us all the second I showed up, or you when it got tired of waiting.”

“So I’ll always be in danger. My whole life,” Ben said alarmed. 

“Not necessarily. We’re gonna talk to Gabriel and see what he can do to help with that. Sam and I are warded against being found. He’s already implied that he would be willing to do the same to you and your mother once he’s well enough. There might be more that he can do too. We’re gonna make it as safe as possible for you. Give you as normal a life as we can.”

“So all this here…This is what you do?” Ben asked getting more curious than angry. 

“Not exactly. Usually what we do involves a lot more action and a lot less research, but I’m not doing that anymore. Amara is unfinished business and then I’m out for good. Sam too.”

“Unfinished business?” 

“You know how I always told you about taking responsibility for your actions and if you mess up you need to fix it?” Ben nodded. “Sam and I accidentally released her. We have to clean up our mess.”

“Does that mean you’re coming back to us?” Ben asked hopefully. 

“That’s up to your mother and something that she and I will work out. But Ben. Whether I do or not, I will always be as much a part of your life as you’ll allow me to be.”

Ben nodded. He thought for a minute and remembered something else that got glossed over. “You said I didn’t have all my memories back. The memories I’m missing are of when we were kidnapped I’m guessing?” Dean nodded. “Well if I’m going to spent the rest of my life in danger, however much we’re able to reduce it, I should probably have them back.”

Dean nodded again. “We will have Gabriel get them back for you tomorrow, but just remember. Demons lie. They always tell the most hurtful lie they can think of at any given time.”

“Yeah. I remember,” Ben said. “I…I think I need some time to wrap my head around all this.”

“We understand baby. Take all the time you need,” Lisa made her first foray into the conversation and Ben got up and headed towards his room. 

 

Meanwhile:  
Gabriel found Sam tidying up the library and grabbed his hand pulling him towards their rooms. Gabriel had decided that he was going to commandeer Sam’s room for the remainder of their time here so he pulled the soon to be retired hunter into his room and pinned him against the wall kissing him soundly before leaning up to whisper huskily in his ear, “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for this?” 

“Are you sure you’re up to it?” Sam asked both concerned and excited. 

“Mmhmm,” Gabriel murmured as his lips were working Sam’s neck making Sam’s breathing increase as he wrapped his arms around the archangel and pulled him tight. Just the thought of what was about to happen had him rock hard already and apparently had the same effect on Gabriel if the erection he felt pressing into his own was any indication. 

Gabriel was torn between his need to just take Sam already, and his desire to make it memorable and make it last. He wasn’t an archangel for nothing though. It had been a long time since he’d needed to make use of his iron self-control, but he would do it now. His hands moved to the button’s on Sam’s shirt as he slowly started popping them open one by one, moving his lips over the hunter’s collarbones, alternating soft kisses with light nips as Sam’s arms tightened around him. 

Gabriel wasn’t even halfway done with Sam’s shirt before the hunter was tugging impatiently at Gabriel’s, so the archangel paused long enough to shuck his shirt over his head, giving Sam plenty of skin to explore while Gabriel continued with what he was doing. And explore Sam did. He ran his hands over every inch of the soft golden bronze skin, belied by the lean muscle and hard lines beneath. He traced every one of those lines, every curve of every muscle, every valley and plateau of the archangel’s back and sides and chest and stomach as Gabriel took his time driving Sam to the heights of desire with his lips and hands. 

Once Gabriel was sliding the hunter’s shirt off his shoulders, he backed them up to the bed and lowered them gently onto it, sliding himself on top of Sam and pressing his hips down, grinding their erections together as moans pulled from them both. As much as Sam was enjoying himself, he really wanted to get this show on the road. His hands found their way to Gabriel’s pants and began fumbling with the button. Gabriel took the hint and did the same with Sam’s moving back slide both Sam’s and his own pants off, before quickly resuming his position. 

The feel of their naked lengths rubbing together pulled even more needy moans from them as Gabriel kissed Sam desperately. It wasn’t long though before he was moving lips and teeth and tongue down Sam’s chest and stomach. It wasn’t rushed exactly, but he wasn’t taking nearly as much time to savor Sam’s body as he may have wanted to. Even his own iron control was slipping. 

By the time Gabriel took Sam in his mouth, the hunter was nearly incoherent with want. He didn’t even notice the slick finger entering him until it hit the sweet spot and he arched up off the bed, begging for more. The things Gabriel could do with his mouth were quickly driving Sam to the brink, but the archangel’s talents were far too great to let him cross it. Sam wouldn’t cum until Gabriel was good and ready for him to. 

By the time Gabriel was inserting the second finger, Sam was a mass of whimpers and moans. “Oh…god…Gabriel…more…please…fuck…” 

Gabriel was quickly losing his control. Between the beautiful sounds, the gorgeous responsive body, and Sam’s shameless begging, he didn’t know how much longer he could wait so he sped up and finished stretching Sam out as quickly as he could. When he removed his fingers, Sam whined at the loss, but they were quickly replaced as Gabriel just plunged in, giving his own relieved moan. He leaned down to kiss Sam gently as he started rolling his hips, angling just right to hit Sam’s sweet spot. “Love you…Sammy…so much,” he murmured against the hunter’s lips. 

“Love you…Gabe…always,” Sam returned. 

Gabriel kept it slow and sweet as long as he could manage…which wasn’t very long given how long he’d been dry for and how long he’d been waiting for this and how long it had taken him to get to this point. It didn’t take much time though before he was moving faster and harder and quickly reaching a frantic pace as he felt his own release nearing. He reached down to take Sam’s aching cock in his hands and started stroking in time with his thrusts. “Oh…fuck…Sammy…can’t…fuck…cum for me…Sammy…” he panted out as he was teetering on the edge. 

Sam was just as close and when he bucked his hips up for more, pulling Gabriel in even deeper that was all it took to push him over the edge. Gabriel’s free hand went underneath the hunter, holding his hips up as Gabriel buried himself to the hilt as his own orgasm washed over him. Once he was spent, he pulled out slowly and snapped his fingers to clean them up while repositioning himself so that he was straddling Sam’s waist and laid himself over the hunter’s chest, snuggling into Sam’s warmth. 

Sam smiled at Gabriel’s adorable behavior and wrapped his arms around his angel, one arm settling across Gabriel’s back and the other hand carding through Gabriel’s sweat-slick hair. Neither of them spoke. No words were needed. They just lay there like that until they eventually fell asleep.


	18. Chapter 18

Gabriel woke the next morning to a gentle hand running through his hair. He realized that at some point during the night he had moved partially off of Sam so that his side was resting on the bed, but the rest of him was still thrown over the hunter. He burrowed deeper into the warmth and mumbled, “Can’t we just stay like this forever?”

Sam gave a short chuckle. “It would be nice, but sorry. We have work to do and I need to eat.”

Gabriel huffed. “Fine. But when this is over we’re staying in bed forever.”

Sam laughed outright at that. “Whatever you say Gabe,” he placated his lover as he got up and started pulling on some clean clothes. 

Gabriel just snapped his fingers and he was dressed and they headed out to the library. “How are you feeling?” 

“Much better. Should be fully healed by tomorrow,” Gabriel told him. It was about time too. He should have been fully healed days ago if it hadn’t been for his little setback. 

“That’s great,” Sam said as they entered the library to find a full breakfast already laid out waiting for them thanks to Gabriel. 

The smell of the food soon had the others joining them as they took their seats. Breakfast was spent mostly chatting and once it was over, Ben asked Gabriel, “Can I get the rest of my memories back today?” He hadn’t slept very well because his mind kept imagining the worst possible scenarios for his missing memories. He would much rather know than keep wondering. 

Gabriel cast a quick glance to both Dean and Lisa who both nodded so he said, “Sure thing kid. You wanna do it now or later?”

“Well…” Ben gestured to all the research around them as if to say they were kinda busy now. 

“You know you can take a day off if you need to. Hell you don’t even need to be helping anyway if you don’t want to,” Gabriel told him. 

Ben gladly accepted the excuse. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep wondering, but he had felt guilty leaving them all with the research. He knew from the way Dean talked and the look on his mother’s face that it was bad and knew that he would need some time to process. “Okay. Yeah. Let’s do it now then. I just need to know.”

Gabriel suggested doing it in his room, so he could already be lying down. Dean went with them, wanting to be there to explain and talk to Ben when he woke up. Once again he told Gabriel that he didn’t have to stay so the archangel returned to the library. Lisa didn’t really want to be there for this part. She didn’t want to see his reactions to what his memories revealed. She didn’t want to hear him talk about it. Dean would be far better than her at getting him through this. 

They had split up the labor. Gabriel was looking for references to hands of god, being the most qualified to spot them, while Sam was looking for things that could be tweaked to use against Amara and the rest, which at this particular moment consisted of Lisa, just looked for anything that might be useful to forward on to the others. 

Dean got back just before lunch. Apparently he and Ben had a lot to talk about and Lisa, after seeing it could just imagine. It was just after lunch when Gabriel yelled, “Eureka!” 

“What? What did you find?” Sam asked. 

“Well apparently the men of letters got ahold of a hand of god at some point,” Gabriel started before he was cut off. 

“What you mean it’s been under our noses the whole time?” Dean asked incredulously. 

“No. It was lost during the trip back here from Poland. The sub that was transporting it sank. But I know when and where to go get it.” 

“Great! So that stage is done,” Sam said satisfied. 

“Not really. I’m gonna keep looking just in case. It can’t hurt to have some backup options,” Gabriel said as he pulled another book forward.

Sam just shrugged. It made sense. Gabriel was occasionally pulled away from his own research to answer some questions for Sam and work out some kinks in the hunter’s theory. Just before dinner, Gabriel found another reference that could be to a hand of god, but unconfirmed. “I’ll check out the first in the morning and if that doesn’t pan out, I’ll get a little deeper into this one,” Gabriel promised. 

Ben showed back up for dinner with a, “Hey dad. Did you ask Gabriel about warding and stuff yet?” 

Sam, as the only one who didn’t know the news, did a double take between Dean and Ben. “Dad?” he asked shocked. 

“Gabriel didn’t tell you?” Dean asked curiously. 

Gabriel held his hands up in surrender. “Wasn’t my place.”

“So that’s why the demons were after them,” Sam nodded as if all the pieces were sliding into place. 

“Yeah,” Dean said with a grimace. “And no Ben. I haven’t asked Gabriel yet. I thought you might want to be in on the discussion.” He was doing his best to treat his son more like an adult and give him some illusion of control over his own life. 

“Well I can guess what the question is going to be so I’ll tell you what I have in mind and you can weigh in. Sound good?” Gabriel suggested. When he got nods all around he started. “Well first thing I can ward you the way Sam and Dean are warded. They can’t be found by anything except normal human methods. I’d suggest changing your names, at least last names since they obviously know that information and they can easily figure out how to do a google search. I’ll also place wards around whatever houses you live in to keep anything supernatural, except for me of course, out.”

“Is that part optional?” Dean joked. 

“Nope,” Gabriel said sticking his tongue out at the hunter.

“What if we get found when we’re outside the house?” Ben asked nervously. 

“Then just shoot a prayer for me. I can be the Winchester guard dog,” Gabriel said wryly. 

“Does that mean I can put a collar and leash on you?” Dean teased. 

“Hey, if anyone’s putting a collar and leash on him it’s me,” Sam said with a laugh. 

“Mmm. I like the way you think Sammykins,” Gabriel said with a suggestive wink. 

“Oh come on. There’s a kid in the room,” Dean groaned. 

“He’s sixteen. I’m sure he’s heard worse,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“Gabriel’s right. But Dad is right too. Just no. You’re like…my uncles or something. That’s just…eew.”

“Hmm. Uncle Gabriel. I like the sound of that,” Gabriel said thoughtfully. 

“God help us,” Dean said rolling his eyes. 

“Don’t think he’ll bother Deano,” Gabriel said with a laugh. 

Lisa, desperate to change the subject, asked, “Gabriel brings up a good point though. Where are we going to live when all this is over?” 

“By we you mean…” Dean asked hopefully. 

“I mean the three of us, but I swear to god Dean…”

“I know. Last chance. I better not screw it up. I won’t,” Dean assured her with a relieved grin. 

“Well it’s up to you guys. I have plenty of safe-houses all over the world and you’re welcome to one of them or you can get your own place,” Gabriel offered. “Well any of them except the island. That one’s mine and Sammy’s.”

“Do I get a say in that at all?” Sam asked more amused than annoyed. He had known going in that Gabriel was a whirlwind and he would just have to try and keep up. 

“Only if your say is yes,” Gabriel quipped. 

Sam huffed a laugh. He knew that he could get Gabriel to travel anywhere he wanted to for any length of time he wanted to. If Gabriel wanted to pick their ‘home base’ he would give it to him. 

Lisa liked the idea of a safe-house that is already warded and if Gabriel warded it for his own use she would bet that the wards were as good as they could get. “Your safe-houses. Are they in hidden locations or towns or…” 

“Little of both. Everything from a secluded mountain cabin to a penthouse in New York,” Gabriel told her. 

“Do you…maybe…have pictures or anything?” She asked curiously. 

Gabriel didn’t but that was easy enough to remedy. He snapped his fingers and a stack of folders appeared on the table. “Pictures as well as anything you might want to know about the area. Any other questions just ask.” 

She opened one of the folders and flipped through it and nodded. “Thank you Gabriel. For everything.”

Gabriel just gave an uncomfortable shrug. “You guys are family now,” he said matter-of-factly putting a beaming grin on Sam’s face and earning him nods and smiles from the others. They seemed to sense that he didn’t want to make a big deal of it thankfully.


	19. Chapter 19

Once Lisa, Dean and Ben were settled looking through the folders, Sam and Gabriel headed for Sam’s room which would now be more aptly termed as their room. “You got one of those folders for our island paradise?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Who said anything about paradise? I just said island,” Gabriel asked with a smirk. 

Sam rolled his eyes. “I know you Gabriel. It’s a paradise,” he said with his own smirk. Gabriel just laughed and snapped up a folder. He could just as easily take Sam there himself, but going there, looking around, and then leaving would be like torture for both of them. They would be there for good soon enough. 

Gabriel got to his knees behind Sam who was sitting on the bed and started massaging his shoulders as he whispered in his ear. “Just imagine…lounging on the beach, making love in the sand, watching the sunset every night…”

“Mmm. Definitely sounds like paradise to me,” Sam breathed out tilting his head to the side giving Gabriel better access where the archangel started nibbling at his neck. Sam didn’t even make it all the way through the pictures before he was lost in his angel and when they woke tangled together the next morning he had completely forgotten about it. 

They headed to the library for breakfast and once everyone was there, Gabriel announced the plan for the day. “Ok so first things first. I’m basically fully healed now so let me ward up our two newcomers.” He stepped towards Lisa and said apologetically. “This is gonna hurt, but just for a minute.” He pressed his hand to her chest and held her in place until he was finished and she doubled over in pain gasping for breath. Dean was by her side rubbing her arms soothingly. Gabriel waited until she had herself together before moving to Ben, knowing that Dean would want to be with Ben for the aftereffects as well. The process repeated itself, but unlike his mother who had been through childbirth and thus knew pain well, he had tears running down his face when it was over. Dean supported him through it, though and it passed quickly enough. They were all glad that once would cover them for life though. 

“Ok now I’m gonna go see about retrieving the hand of god that the men of letters found. Be back soon, hopefully one step closer to Amara’s demise,” he said as he gave Sam a hard kiss and disappeared. 

He wasn’t gone long as he reappeared about two minutes later soaking wet and looking very much like a drowned rat. He shivered and snapped his fingers, drying himself before plopping despondently into the chair. “Well that didn’t go according to plan,” he grumbled. 

“What happened?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Well apparently the men of letters were thorough. They had the sub warded up so tight that when I tried to get in it dumped me in the ocean,” he said petulantly. “Then I tried popping forward to this time, but the warding has apparently held all those years underwater. I have no idea when or where the sub left from or how it got onboard, and I’m guessing they have it warded just as well at every stop on the journey so that one is out.”

“You said you might have found another one though?” Dean asked hopefully. 

“Yeah. I found a reference. Still need more info before I check it out though. Maybe after lunch,” he told them as he hit the books again along with everyone else. They almost had the rest of the plan ready. This was going much quicker than Gabriel had thought it would now that they had the whole hand of god thing to go on…hopefully. 

When Gabriel snapped up lunch, he turned to talk to the rest. “Well you guys may not like this much,” he said hesitantly. 

“Why? Is it not what we thought?” Sam asked confused. 

“It is. At least as far as I can tell. I’m going to do some scouting and fact check as much as I can, but if this text is right, it’s going to take all five of us to get it,” Gabriel told them. 

As he had expected, Dean puffed up at that. “No way are Lisa and Ben getting involved in anything more than research,” he said heatedly. 

“Like I said. I still need to check and make sure that this is all accurate…at least as best I can. Once I do then we can discuss particulars. I just wanted to give you a heads up that it may be necessary.” 

“Necessary or not, it’s not happening,” Dean said firmly. Gabriel decided not to argue right now. He would wait and see if there was something worth arguing about. He was going to finish his lunch first though. 

Once he had finished eating, he was gone for about thirty minutes before he came back and said, “Okay so as best I can tell everything here is accurate. We need four humans. One touched by heaven, one touched by hell, a mother, and a virgin,” Gabriel said. “So unless you know another mother and another virgin that you would trust with the most powerful artifact on earth that could give them godlike powers…” Gabriel let the sentence hang. 

“I said no, Gabriel,” Dean ground out refusing to even consider the matter. 

“Okay. Then Amara keep wreaking havoc until we find another one, if any other ones even exist,” Gabriel said sitting back down with a shrug. 

“Hold on a sec,” Sam said. “What exactly would we be walking into if we did it? And you didn’t say anything about you, and are you sure we would qualify?” 

“Deano’s handprint from Cassie makes him touched by heaven. Your demon blood makes you touched by hell. Lisa is obviously a mother and Ben is a virgin, so yes you all qualify. I’m not strictly necessary as far as the requirements to get in, but there are some serious threats there that no human could survive without me. Basically the way it works is the human touched by heaven enters first and has to pull each person in behind him to the first chamber. Then they have to get past all the traps there which is where I come in. Then the person touched by hell enters the second and pulls the rest in behind him. More traps. Then the mother. More traps. Then the last chamber is free of any traps, but only the virgin can enter and remove the hand of god. Then we all go out in the same order.”

“What kind of traps?” Sam asked. 

“Don’t know. The text wasn’t specific, but unless they have resurrected archangels or siblings of god in there, it’s nothing I won’t be able to take care of. I figure best way is whoever has to go in first pulls me along with them then I take care of the traps while they get the rest of you through.” 

“And you’re sure that no one will be hurt?” Sam asked. 

“Sam…” Dean said warningly. 

“It’s highly unlikely, but even if they are, it won’t be anything I can’t heal,” Gabriel assured them. “I couldn’t get into the chambers, but I could see the wards surrounding them and I will definitely be able to use my powers inside,” Gabriel assured them. 

“Can I talk to you alone for a minute,” Dean said angrily, grabbing Gabriel’s arm and hauling him outside the library. Only the fact that Sam knew that Gabriel wouldn’t be allowing it if he didn’t want to kept him from protesting the rough handling. 

 

Once they were in the hallway away from prying eyes, Dean rounded on Gabriel. “What the hell are you playing at trying to get them to go on this kind of mission?”

“Exactly what I told you Deano. I want Amara out of the way and this is the way to do it. Even if you did know someone else who met the requirements that you would trust with that kind of power, I don’t. I don’t ‘like’ trusting any of you with that kind of power, but at least I know that I can. It’s this or leave Amara to destroy everything, them included, in her vendetta.”

Dean sighed irritably and ran his hand through his hair as he paced for a moment before he stopped and got right up in Gabriel’s space. “You swear to me Gabriel that you will keep my family safe,” he hissed. 

“I swear to you Dean, by all that’s holy to me, that I will protect them with my last breath,” Gabriel vowed. 

“Fine,” he snapped stepping back. “But only if they agree.” 

He didn’t even realize that everyone was eavesdropping, thus making relocating the conversation completely pointless until both Lisa and Ben said from the doorway that they agreed. A vow from an archangel to keep them safe was good enough for them.


	20. Chapter 20

“Well, now that’s settled,” Gabriel said with a single clap. “We should probably wait and start fresh in the morning. I don’t know how long this is going to take and it’s best if we are all well rested. I don’t want to push myself too hard my first day back to normal either.”

“Agreed,” Sam said. Not just on that starting in the morning, but the last thing he wanted was for Gabriel to push himself too hard and have another setback and he was glad that the usually brash archangel was actually thinking ahead for once. 

They all turned back to their research and like the day before, Gabriel still kept searching for another reference to a hand of god. If he could find one easier to get to, that would be great. Unfortunately, he didn’t so they planned to head out right after breakfast the next morning. 

 

They appeared on a cold dreary beach in front of what looked like a cave. Only Gabriel could feel the magic heavy in the air and it made him shiver, much as the cold made the others shiver. “Okay,” Dean said nervously. “Just so we’re clear on the plan…I go through first with you…”

“You have to be holding my hand and I’ll have to be behind you until we get through the ward,” Gabriel reminded him. 

Dean grimaced at the idea of holding Gabriel’s hand, but nodded at the clarification. “Then you go all archangelic wrath on the traps and I bring the others through.” Gabriel was the one to nod this time. “But if we get in trouble you can’t get us out?” 

“Nope. The wards are encompassing, but not enveloping,” Gabriel explained. 

“For the laymen among us?” Lisa asked curiously. 

“Means they cover the area but don’t go through it. I can’t bust in or out, but within the wards my powers will work fine,” Gabriel explained. Lisa and Ben nodded in understanding. “We ready to get this show on the road?”

“Yeah,” Dean said stepping nervously to the mouth of the cave. “Sam?” 

“I know. I’ll come through last,” he told his brother. He would keep an eye on Lisa and Ben from this side. 

Dean took Gabriel’s hand and stepped forward, Gabriel a step behind him and he found himself in a large cavern. He had just felt some sort of breath on his leg when Gabriel made it through and cursed, “Fuck.” The archangel reached out a hand and a bright light lit the room, but Dean still couldn’t see anything. “Hold off a sec on bringing the other’s through,” he said as he moved quickly around things that Dean couldn’t see and even pulled his blade and started slashing with one hand while the other smited. 

Given his previous experience with them, it shouldn’t have taken Dean the thirty seconds it did to figure out, “Hell hounds.”

“Righto. Fifty of them,” Gabriel quipped back, not breaking his stride. A few minutes later he finally stopped and put his back to the wall and slid down it. He needed to sit for a moment. “Go ahead and bring the others through now.”

“Um...how? I can’t even see anything on the other side,” Dean told him, seeing nothing but a blank wall behind him. He hadn’t moved since he entered, so he assumed it was some aspect of the wards. 

“Just stick your hand through until someone grabs it,” Gabriel told him. 

 

On the other side of the wall they watched Dean and Gabriel disappear. They could still see what looked like the inside of the cave, but there was no one there. Sam, despite his own nervous doubts, assured Lisa and Ben that they were there and the wards just wouldn’t let them see through. His nerves increased the longer time that passed without any sign though. The plan was for Dean to start pulling them through right away while Gabriel was busy with whatever traps and guards they had.

After what seemed like forever, they finally saw a hand that seemed to be resting on thin air, and Sam sighed with relief and motioned for one of them to go. Lisa sent Ben first, and almost as soon as he passed through the hand reappeared and she followed and then Sam. Sam raised a concerned eyebrow as he saw Gabriel sitting by the wall looking pretty tired. “Fifty hell hounds,” Gabriel explained. 

“Shit,” Sam breathed out. That explained the delay. Gabriel wouldn’t want them to come through while there was a chance that he could lose track of any of them. 

“Yeah. Just gimme a few to catch my breath then we can go on,” Gabriel said. 

“Okay. Yeah,” Sam said. “So hell hounds for the person touched by heaven. Does that mean I’ll get something heavenly in the next room?” 

“Oh, father, I hope not,” Gabriel said with a wince, but knowing his luck Sam would be right. 

“Why? Do you have an idea…” Sam trailed off. Anything that could make Gabriel nervous had him nervous. 

“Heaven’s greatest weapon is fear. If it is something heavenly, it’s something that would trap me within my greatest fear that I would have to fight through.” 

Sam echoed Gabriel’s wince. That was pretty much the worst thing that Gabriel could face. He had come a long way, but he still had a decent trace of cowardice in him. “I’m sorry Gabriel. It’s not too late to go back…” he suggested. 

“No,” Gabriel said firmly. “We go on.” 

“Well if all it needs is fighting through fear then I could…” Sam started to suggest. 

“Not a chance Samshine,” Gabriel said. “The Hoxmarch is far stronger than you think. Humans are almost always driven mad within seconds from its effects.” 

“And archangels?” Sam asked pointedly.

“Can withstand a little more, but they are aptly named,” Gabriel told him. 

“What does the name mean?” Dean asked curiously. 

“Hoxmarch is the Enochian word for fear,” Gabriel explained. “But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We don’t even know that that’s what’s waiting for us.” 

“Come on Gabriel. You should know Winchester luck by now. It will always be the worst possible thing,” Sam said wryly. 

“Next time I do something like this I’m not bringing Winchesters then,” Gabriel joked as he held out his hand to Sam who helped him up. “If I seem to go crazy once we’re in there then we are dealing with a Hoxmarch and there will only be one. They don’t play well with others so it will be safe to bring the others through while I’m dealing with it,” Gabriel told him as they stepped up to the door. 

“But what if…” Sam couldn’t complete the thought. He didn’t want to think of Gabriel losing and it coming after them instead. 

“Don’t worry. If I do lose, you’ll know because I’ll disappear. Then the hoxmarch goes in to hibernation for about a decade while it digests its meal so you’ll have plenty of time to get everyone back out with no trouble.” 

“But why not wait?” Sam asked curiously, wanting to know if there was a reason for it. 

“The only beings who have ever survived an encounter with a hoxmarch have been surrounded by others. We’re not sure if it’s coincidence or if it helps, but it can’t hurt,” Gabriel said with a shrug. “Oh and part of the hoxmarch’s spell is that I won’t realize what I’m dealing with. Whatever it shows me will be completely real to my mind.” 

Sam nodded tensely and said, “Ready?” 

“Ready,” Gabriel said nervously as they stepped through the doorway. 

 

Gabriel immediately found himself pinned to the wall, Sam pinned to his left still clasping his hand. “Well if it isn’t the two people I most wanted to see,” he heard a voice say with mock sweetness. 

Gabriel sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of Amara. He would have to make another distraction to give Sam time to escape. “How are you here?”

“You really think these pitiful wards could stop someone like me? I knew you would be after a hand of god and you have such perfect subjects for the hard parts already, so I had a feeling you would be here sooner or later,” she said with a smirk.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tissue warning. Keep them handy.

“Let him go. It’s me you want,” Gabriel told her. 

“On the contrary. I want you both. I need him out of the way if I’m ever going to get to keep his brother to myself.” 

Gabriel started struggling against the spell holding him in place, despite knowing that it was useless. He was no match for even the least of her power. “Please…” Gabriel reduced himself to begging. She obviously wasn’t going to allow herself to be distracted this time. 

She just smirked at him and waved a hand and he suddenly found himself bound to the wall with cuffs that locked away his powers as Sam was wrenched away from him. “Let’s give you a better view, shall we?” She threw him to the floor in front of Gabriel. “You’re going to watch me destroy him,” she said with a cruel grin. 

“No…please. Take me instead. Do whatever you want with me, just let him go…please,” Gabriel begged, tears running down his cheeks, even as she ignored him and threw her hands towards Sam causing his back to arch off the floor as a bloodcurdling scream of agony was torn from him. 

“You remember what that feels like don’t you, little archangel,” she taunted. “How much do you think he can take before his mind breaks?” 

She threw out her hands and hit him with the blast again, Sam’s screams drowning out Gabriel’s own screams of, “Sam! No! Stop it Amara! Please! I’ll do anything, just please.” He sobbed the last words brokenly. 

 

As soon as they were through the doorway, Gabriel immediately plastered himself against the wall next to them and his eyes widened in fear. He looked towards Sam, but seemed to look right through him before looking to the side at nothing and saying fearfully, “How are you here?” Sam knew then that it was exactly what they feared, and that Gabriel was lost in the creature’s spell, so he quickly stuck his hand through the opaque doorway and started pulling the others through and they all started calling to him trying to make him realize that it wasn’t real. They didn’t seem to be getting through to him though.

Sam heard Gabriel begging someone to let someone else go and take him instead and Sam wondered who it was. Who was it that Gabriel was so terrified of losing that it would manifest as his greatest fear out of his billions of years of life. Sam didn’t even consider himself as a possibility. Surely Gabriel had loved someone before. He knew Gabriel had been in plenty of relationships before him, so it wasn’t until he heard Gabriel screaming his name that he realized that something happening to Sam was Gabriel’s greatest fear. 

Sam had been trying to avoid touching Gabriel, not knowing what that would do to the spell he was under, but when the archangel started weeping and struggling against invisible cuffs, Sam couldn’t help himself anymore. He couldn’t just stand by and watch this and apparently words alone weren’t getting through to him. 

Lisa was crying along with the archangel and Ben didn’t look far from it. Dean had his jaw set firmly, refusing to show his horror at the sight they were witnessing. Seeing an archangel, Gabriel in particular, so completely broken, was eating at him just as much as it was everyone else and he watched as Sam lurched over to Gabriel and put his hands on Gabriel’s shoulders. 

“Gabriel, snap out of it. It’s not real. I’m here. I’m fine. C’mon Gabe. Come back to me,” he said gently ignoring his own tears that were streaming down his cheeks. “C’mon Gabe. Fight it. Please.” Sam wrapped his arms around Gabriel as tightly as he could with being unable to budge him away from the wall. He pressed his lips lightly against Gabriel’s hoping it might help. 

 

Gabriel watched as Amara just kept torturing Sam. She would stop for a minute to taunt him before going back to it and Gabriel just kept begging, feeling his heart break more and more as Sam screamed and he knew it wouldn’t take much more before the hunter’s mind broke. “Please…Sam…” he whimpered. 

He suddenly felt a phantom touch on his shoulders, followed by what felt like a warm embrace. He wondered if it was his father coming to comfort him for a moment, but it didn’t feel like his father and surely he would sense him here. So would Amara, but she didn’t seem to notice anything. His attention was torn away from that strange feeling when he saw the foaming spittle coming from Sam’s mouth as his screams finally stopped, his mind breaking and his sobs grew more uncontrolled. It wasn’t until he felt a pair of warm lips caress his own that it dawned on him that this might not be real. Archangel’s didn’t feel phantom sensations unless their minds were breaking, and if his breaking mind was trying to bring him to somewhere Sam still was, then let it break. 

He leaned into the sensation desperately needing it to be real and suddenly his hands were free. “No!” Amara screamed and Gabriel pulled his blade and ran her through and she disappeared in a puff of smoke and he was falling into Sam’s arms, still weeping. 

“Shh. It’s okay, Gabriel. I’ve got you,” Sam said, carding his hand through Gabriel’s hair. “I’ve got you.” 

“S-Sammy…” Gabriel clung to him like a lifeline. “You’re…” 

“It wasn’t real Gabriel. Whatever you saw, whatever she said, whatever she did, it wasn’t real. It was the hoxmarch.”

“Hoxmarch?” Gabriel said questioningly. “Or it was real and this is where my mind took me to escape.”

“This is real, Gabriel. I promise,” Sam said earnestly. 

“It’s okay, Sammy,” he sniffled, tears still streaming, but in better control of his speech. “I don’t mind. I don’t care if this is real or not. As long as I’m here,” Gabriel told him, still clinging just as tightly to the hunter. 

Sam wasn’t sure what to think about the fact that Gabriel didn’t care if he was hallucinating or not, but he needed to convince Gabriel that this was real somehow so he did the first thing he could think of. He grabbed Gabriel in a hard, desperate kiss, tongues and teeth clashing and didn’t release him until he needed air. “Did that feel like a hallucination?” Sam asked breathlessly pressing his forehead to the archangels. 

Gabriel finally started to believe and sank bonelessly in Sam’s arms, “Sammy…” he said relieved. “I…I thought…”

“I know, Gabe,” Sam pressed a kiss to the archangel’s head. “I know.”

“She was…torturing you…the way she did me. It…I couldn’t…”

“Shh. It’s okay. I’m here. I’m fine. She didn’t hurt me,” Sam assured him. 

“I just…I can’t lose you Sammy,” Gabriel said in a fearful whisper. 

“You won’t Gabriel. Ever. I love you, and I’m yours. Always.” 

“I love you Sammy,” Gabriel said, tears finally slowing and his trembling was beginning to ease as well. Even if Sam had doubted that, this experience would have washed away any possible doubt. Seeing Gabriel so broken at the thought of something happening to Sam; knowing that was his greatest fear. That after everything he had seen and experienced and done in his entire life, since before time began, that losing Sam was the one thing that would break him; no one could ever doubt his devotion to the hunter. 

Dean was standing to the side, holding Lisa and Ben close and giving Sam and Gabriel the illusion of privacy. After all that, they needed each other almost as much as Sam and Gabriel did. 

Sam moved them back over to the wall and he leaned back against it, Gabriel curled up to his side, face hidden in the crook of Sam’s neck, just breathing him in and reminding himself that it was all a nightmare. Sam’s head rested against Gabriel’s, his hand still carding through the archangel’s hair as he murmured loving reassurances and running his other hand over Gabriel’s back. 

It was an hour before either of them moved and by then the other three had moved to another corner of the cavern and were talking quietly amongst themselves, giving Gabriel as much time as he needed to collect himself. Gabriel finally pulled back and pressed a sweet gentle kiss to Sam’s lips. “Sorry, Samshine.”

“Jesus Gabriel. You just went through hell. You have nothing to be sorry about,” Sam said incredulously. 

Gabriel just nodded gratefully and laid his head on Sam’s shoulder again for just a few seconds before he started to stand. Sam jumped to his feet and helped Gabriel up the rest of the way. The archangel was understandably still a little shaken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick disclaimer and reminder: I am not responsible for any therapy bills resulting from the reading of this chapter. I don't have any money anyway so don't bother trying to sue :)


	22. Chapter 22

When he saw Gabriel standing, Dean nodded at him and said, “You good man?” 

“Yeah. I’m good now,” Gabriel said, trying to keep his embarrassment from showing too much. Breaking down like that in front of Sam was bad enough, but everyone else was even worse. He was now wishing he had made them wait until the danger was clear, but if having them here would have helped then he would have been in trouble. “We ready to move on?” 

“Do you have any ideas about what might be waiting behind the next door?” Lisa asked nervously. 

“Not really. Going by the theme it will be something that will work against your motherly instinct, but beyond that I couldn’t say,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

“Ok Lis. As soon as you and Gabe are through reach back for me. Sam can stay back with Ben until it’s clear,” Dean told her. He didn’t like her going into potential danger without him, even with an archangel by her side. She nodded and stepped up and took Gabriel’s hand, willing her heart to stop beating so furiously. Even reminding herself that Gabriel wouldn’t let anything happen to her didn’t help much. She took a deep shaky breath and stepped through the doorway, gripping Gabriel’s hand so tightly that if he were human it would have broken it. 

No sooner than she caught sight of what was waiting for her, Gabriel was in front of her shielding her from what seemed like a hundred, but was really more like twenty, children in the form of vengeful spirits. None of them looked older than ten and Gabriel was reaching a hand through them in turn making them go up in flames and disappear. “Dean,” Gabriel reminded her, seeing that she was frozen at the sight and she quickly reached through and pulled Dean through. 

Dean was taken aback at the sight too, but quickly pulled his sawed-off from his jacket and started blasting the ones that got too close before Gabriel could take them out. By the time they were finished Gabriel was shaking with rage, and Lisa reached through to bring Ben and Sam. “Those complete, utter, bastards…” Gabriel cursed as he paced angrily. 

“What…” Sam asked curiously. 

“The only way they could have gotten that many children’s spirits in here is if they brought them in here and killed them. To top it off, the wards trapped their souls so that they never even had the option of moving on and I just had to completely destroy the souls of twenty little kids. I swear if I ever find out who set this place up, and archangel’s wrath will be too good for them,” he growled. 

Sam stepped up to Gabriel and pulled him into a tight hug. He knew that destroying children’s souls couldn’t have been easy for Gabriel. He may put up a tough shell, but he felt things deeply. Especially things like that. 

Gabriel sank gratefully into Sam’s arms. By the time this was over he was going to be so emotionally wrung out he’d be a wreck for days. He just had to hold it together a little longer. He quickly forced himself calm and turned to Ben. “Okay kiddo. For this last part you’re on your own. You’re the only one who can get through that doorway, but there shouldn’t be anything in there except the object we need. You see anything that looks remotely dangerous you step right back through and we’ll try and figure out another way, okay?”

Ben nodded and swallowed around the lump in his throat. “So I just go in, pick it up and bring it back?” he confirmed. 

“Are you sure it’s safe to touch it?” Dean asked nervously. “Maybe he should wrap it in something?” 

“Nah. Not in here. It has to be touching his skin to get through the wards and the wards prevent any of the effects from taking hold. Once we go through the last ward we’ll need to avoid touching it, but until then it is perfectly safe,” Gabriel told him. Dean shifted uncomfortably. “I promise,” Gabriel added. “Also Lisa, Ben will be able to reach through the ward to get back in here, but you’ll have to pull him through, so be ready.”

Dean nodded tersely. “You remember Ben. Any sign of danger come right back through okay?” he reiterated. 

“I got it,” Ben said shakily as he stepped up to the doorway, squared his shoulders and stepped through, leaving four very nervous people waiting for him. 

It was less than ten seconds before Dean said, “Should it be taking so long?”

“He just got in there. Who knows how big it is. If it’s the same size as the rest of the caverns and the hand is at the back then it will take him a few minutes to walk there and back,” Gabriel said, trying and failing not to let his voice betray his own nerves. 

It was another ten seconds before Dean said, “Can you at least tell if he’s okay…you know like…sense him or something?” 

“I can’t penetrate the wards Dean, sensing or otherwise,” Gabriel snapped. 

“Right,” Dean said pacing and running his hand through his hair. Lisa stood directly in front of the doorway, not budging and watching closely for Ben’s hand. 

After what seemed like forever but in reality was closer to three minutes, Ben’s hand reached back through the ward and Lisa grabbed it and pulled him through, clutching him to her. 

He quickly pulled away. “The…the thing…I had it…” he looked frightened at his empty hands. Had he done something wrong? Had he messed up their best chance?

“It’s okay kid. Look behind you,” Gabriel told him placing a hand on his shoulder and Ben turned around to see the chunk of wood suspended in midair in the doorway. “You can’t carry it through this cavern is all,” Gabriel told him and motioned for Lisa to go and grab it. 

Lisa gave Ben one more quick hug before relinquishing him to his father as she went to grab the hand of god and they walked to the opposite door of this cavern, the other four unconsciously forming a shield with her and the weapon in the center. “Sam. You’re up,” Gabriel said as they reached the next doorway. 

“I take Lisa with me or you?” he asked. 

“The creatures won’t be back. Take Lisa then reach back for the rest of us,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam nodded and did so, transferring the chunk of wood in the doorway before he reached back for the others. The next doorway went much the same, Dean bringing Sam with him and then the others. The last doorway was a little different. “Okay, for this one, Dean set the hand down in the doorway, just at the wardline, then go through with me. I’ll work on securing it while you bring the others. We have to be very careful not to touch it with our bare skin outside the wards.”

“Okay. Got it,” Dean said setting it down in the doorway. “Right there?” he asked. 

“Push it forward another inch,” Gabriel directed. Dean did so and looked back for approval getting a nod from Gabriel who stepped forward and took his hand. 

As Dean reached through and Ben took his hand, they saw the weapon disappear from the doorway, presumably Gabriel had it now, which was confirmed as they were through and saw Gabriel placing the cloth wrapped item in a box covered with scribbles that Sam and Dean could recognize as Enochian, but could only assume were wards. “I need everyone to place a couple drops of blood on the top of this box,” he told them. 

“Why?” Sam asked curiously. 

“An added protection. That way none of us can open this box alone. It has to be agreed between all of us,” Gabriel said. 

“Me too?” Ben asked, awed that he would be trusted with something like that. 

“You’re man enough to help us get it, you’re man enough to help us decide when to use it,” Gabriel told him and Ben beamed proudly. 

“Is this really necessary?” Dean grumbled. He thought it was a bit of overkill. 

“It could be keyed to just one of us, but do you really want this kind of power in the hands of just one person?” Gabriel asked pointedly. 

“But you’re the only one who can use it anyway,” Sam pointed out. 

“I’m the only one who can use it safely, but anyone could use it. This way we all have to agree on the right time, no one can take it out and play with it before then,” Gabriel told them. 

“Right. Yeah. That makes sense,” Dean finally agreed as he pulled his knife and cut his hand letting a few drops of blood fall on the box. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I could have just pricked your finger, moron.” Dean gave a sheepish shrug and Gabriel proceeded to do just that for the rest of them before giving a little chant and the box glowed red for a moment before it returned to its normal look, but with five more symbols around the edge of the box in a repeating pattern. 

“Our names in Encohian?” Sam guessed, recognizing Gabriel’s.

“Bingo,” Gabriel told him as he reached down to pick up the box. “Let’s head back, shall we.”


	23. Chapter 23

They reappeared back in the library and Gabriel set the box on top of the low bookshelves by the door. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m taking the rest of the day off,” he announced as he snapped his fingers, putting lunch on the table and turned to head out. The fact that he didn’t even stay to eat anything alarmed Sam and he quickly followed Gabriel out, not stopping to eat himself. 

He peeked into their room to find it empty so he checked the room that Gabriel had before and found the archangel standing, one hand and his forehead braced on the wall, back to the door. “Go eat, Sam. I’m fine,” he said, not turning to look at the hunter. 

“No you’re not,” Sam said as he stepped all the way in. 

“Sam…” Gabriel sighed.

“No, Gabriel. Let me explain how this works. You need support, emotional or otherwise, whether you admit it or not, and I provide that support. The same way you would and do for me, so suck it up and deal with it.” His gentle tone belied his hard words. 

“You don’t understand,” Gabriel said sadly. 

“Then explain it to me,” Sam pleaded as he sat down on the bed, reaching over to pull Gabriel down next to him. 

“I…I thought I lost you today…in the worst possible way. And the fear of losing you again is tearing me apart. It’s…it’s taking everything in me not to convince you to bond with me right now. Despite knowing that we aren’t ready for something like that. Despite knowing that you’d hate me for it later. The thought of…of losing you…I just can’t…”

Sam wrapped his arms tightly around the archangel. “I can’t even imagine how I would feel in your situation. And I do understand. So how about this. You want to try and convince me, go ahead. I won’t say yes. Not until I’m ready. And definitely not until I know what it means,” he added amused. 

Gabriel huffed a humorless laugh. “It means that we would be tied together for all eternity. You wouldn’t age or die, but if one of us were killed the other would follow.”

“So if I died…” Sam trailed off. 

“Then I wouldn’t have to live without you,” Gabriel finished. That wasn’t what Sam was going to say, but the fact that Gabriel finished it that way told him where Gabriel’s head was. 

“Yeah definitely not a decision to make while emotional,” Sam agreed. “But if it’s something that you really want, then one day…when we’re ready…” Sam let the sentence hang, letting the implications do the work for him. 

Gabriel snorted. “I’ve wanted that for ten years now Samshine. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be waiting.”

“I…you…ten years?” Sam thought back and realized it had been about ten years since they met. Gabriel had hinted that he had loved Sam for a while, but this was the first time he’d actually given a time frame. “Since we met?” 

Gabriel gave a wry smile. “When you walked into that college and threw me that amazing smile and charmed the pants off me while you pumped me for information…I was hooked.”

Sam remembered that he had been attracted to the jovial janitor at the time…before they found out what he was and couldn’t help but ask, “Why didn’t you try to pick me up then? You probably would have succeeded.”

“And have you hate me even more when you found out what I was? No thanks.”

“Good point,” Sam admitted. “We weren’t very flexible back then.”

Gabriel chuckled. “Steel was more flexible than you boneheads.”

“We were idiots,” Sam said pressing a kiss to the archangel’s temple. “Me especially.” 

“You won’t get any argument from me.” 

Sam’s stomach growled just then and Gabriel chuckled again. “Go eat Samshine. I’ll be okay,” he told him. 

“Nuh-uh. You want me to eat you’re just going to have to snap me up a sandwich or something right here,” Sam told him with a warm smile. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Always putting me to work,” he said shaking his head. 

“Well you have been quite lazy lately,” Sam joked, earning him a poke to the side, but getting him a sandwich anyway. 

Once Sam was eating, Gabriel looked away and said something that he’d been avoiding, but couldn’t hold it in anymore. “I don’t want you in the fight with Amara.”

Sam nearly choked on his sandwich. “I know you don’t. But I’ll be there anyway,” Sam said sympathetically but firmly. 

“I don’t know if I can protect you against her,” Gabriel tried to reason with him. 

“I don’t care. I love you Gabriel. More than life. But I’m not going to let you wrap me in bubble wrap and keep me locked away like some delicate little flower. This is my fight and I’m going to fight it,” he said. 

“I know,” Gabriel said defeated. 

Sam put an arm around him and pulled him close. “Hey, we’ve still got quite a bit of work to do before we’re there. Let’s not borrow trouble okay?” Sam knew where this was coming from. Gabriel had just seen him torn to shreds by Amara and hallucination or not, it had been very real to Gabriel. 

He finished his sandwich quickly, allowing Gabriel to curl back up to his side. The way that Gabriel was clinging to him proved to Sam that he had done the right thing by pushing himself in rather than leaving Gabriel alone like the archangel had originally wanted. 

 

Dean, Lisa, and Ben decided to take the afternoon off and go through some more of the folders and see if they could decide on a house to live in after all this was over. Now that they had the biggest piece of the puzzle it seemed like the end may actually be in sight. More than half of them had been set aside from the very beginning, being too secluded or in other countries. They wanted to stay in the US. Ben was sixteen now. He only had two years of high school left, so while they would consider school systems it wouldn’t be as big a factor as if he were still young. 

Of the remaining ten, Dean vetoed three because he had worked jobs there in the past and the number one rule of hunters is that you never hit the same town twice. Hunters tended to leave messes behind after all, as he explained to Lisa. That left them with seven to choose from. Ben didn’t get a final say obviously, being a) a teenager and b) headed to college in two years, but his opinion was taken into consideration so the two that he didn’t like were set aside, only to be considered if they didn’t find anything else they liked. Ben wasn’t a big fan of heat. Especially not desert type heat so he didn’t want to be in the one in Texas or the one in New Mexico. 

Dean, however, wasn’t a big fan of cold, so he didn’t like Maine or Seattle. He also suggested not staying in Kansas. It was too central to Winchesters. They were born in Lawrence and they were currently in Lebanon. Lisa had a different point to make about that though. “This safe house is only about two hours from where we are now. If there were ever an emergency or anything we could make for here and hunker down under the wards here.”

“I see your point, and this is the safest place on earth, but Gabriel’s wards are almost as strong. In fact, once Amara is out of the way, the only thing in existence that Gabriel’s wards won’t stop are himself and the big man, so we would be just as safe there as here.”

“Maybe, but if this place is so central to your family, then it’s the last place they would expect you to hide right?” she pointed out. 

“Or the first,” Dean argued. 

Lisa gave him that. It was a bit of a gamble. “We’ll put that one in the maybe pile,” she compromised. She really liked that place. 

It took a few hours but they finally settled on a modest sized…for Gabriel anyway...house in Colorado. It was a small town with a decent school system and low crime rates. It wasn’t in the mountains so it wasn’t too cold, but the mountains were only a two-hour drive away if they wanted to visit them. Then they just had to settle on a last name. Lisa didn’t like their idea of using rock alias’ but even she could find no fault with Simmons so they would be Dean, Lisa, and Ben Simmons. 

That all decided, they spent the rest of the day watching dvds. Gabriel, once his powers were back, had taken the liberty of upgrading the bunker’s entertainment system so their tiny bunny ears tv was replaced with a big screen smart tv with every cable channel imaginable, blu-ray player with surround sound and dozens of blu-ray disks as well as a variety of video game systems and games. 

Dean didn’t really see the point since they were here to work on getting rid of Amara and then they would be putting the place back in mothballs so it wouldn’t be getting much use, but it’s not like Gabriel had to expend any major effort for it so he didn’t bother saying anything.


	24. Chapter 24

They got back to work the next morning, Gabriel helping Sam with theory and refining ideas again now that they had the hand of god. It was midmorning when Sam slid a book over to Gabriel. “Going back to the original idea of using heaven’s light could we maybe modify this spell to infuse the base trapping sigil with it?” 

Gabriel looked it over carefully for a moment. “Not the sigil itself. The blood we draw the sigil from won’t bond heaven’s light, but we could maybe modify the spell to anchor it to another object. It would have to be strong enough to channel that kind of power though.”

“I remember reading that quartz crystals can channel a lot of power,” Lisa suggested. 

“That could work,” Gabriel said thoughtfully. “It would have to a big one in just the right configuration, but if we can find a big enough chunk I can modify the configuration.”

“Can’t you just make the crystal?” Dean asked confused. He’d seen Gabriel snap up far more complicated things before after all. 

Gabriel shook his head. “I could make something that looks like it, but the intrinsic energy of the crystal itself isn’t something that I can create and that’s the key component that we need.”

“How big are we talking?” Sam asked.

“About seven feet all around,” Gabriel said making the rest of them blanche. “Don’t worry so much. There are still a few untouched places that humans haven’t found where quartz grows that I can check out. Won’t be easy to find something that big, but it should be doable. You wanna start on modifying the spell while I go look and I’ll check your modifications and clean it up when I get back?”

“Yeah. Sounds good,” Sam said giving him a kiss before he left. 

When Gabriel hadn’t gotten back by lunchtime, Dean set his books aside and went to whip up a quick lunch for everyone. It was about an hour after lunch when Gabriel came walking back into the library. “Did you find it?” Sam asked. 

“Sure did. I put it in the dungeon for now, that being the largest open space we got.”

“The…never mind. I don’t want to know,” Lisa said shaking her head. 

“I do!” Ben said excitedly. 

“No. You don’t,” Dean said firmly. It wasn’t exactly a kid friendly room with all the restraints and torture implements. Granted, Ben wasn’t exactly a kid anymore, but Dean was still going to keep him as far away from stuff like that as he could. He ignored Ben’s pout as the teenager turned back to his books. 

“Wanna check over my spell?” Sam asked sliding the paper over to the archangel as he had just finished making the modifications. Gabriel looked it over and then snorted in amusement. “Is it bad?”

“No. It’s perfect. If your intention is to plunge heaven into eternal darkness,” Gabriel chuckled. He slid it between them and showed Sam the problem areas. “Let’s switch these two lines and drop the ending of this one and we should be good. Flowery speech is all well and good when you’re trying to get in someone’s pants but in spellwork, not so much,” he joked. 

“Ok. So we have the trapping sigil drawn with placental blood, heaven’s light, and the hand of god. Anything else we need?”

“I’d like to have a few more spells on hand to increase power if possible. And a location. And a plan. And a backup plan. And an escape plan if things go south. And a backup escape plan…”

“Ok, Gabriel. We get it. We have a lot of planning to do,” Dean said rolling his eyes. 

“Why don’t we spend the rest of the day looking up spells and then we can start the planning with fresh eyes tomorrow,” Lisa suggested and everyone agreed. By the end of the day they had three more spells that would, theoretically at least, increase the power granted by the hand of god. Between Gabriel powering up that way and the boost he gets from being in contact with heaven’s light and the power they were stripping from her with the light and the sigil, they actually had a chance. As long as they could come up with a valid plan to put everything into effect. 

The five of them spent most of the evening after dinner in front of the television. Gabriel even kicked Ben’s butt in a few video games much to everyone’s amusement. Once it started getting late though, everyone went to bed. 

Gabriel and Sam made love slow and sweet, both fully aware that there were no guarantees going up against Amara and they may not have that many more chances. Now that Gabriel was fully healed, he didn’t need to sleep anymore, but spent the entire night lying in bed watching Sam sleep and guarding his dreams. 

The next morning, they got down to the planning. “Ok the way I see it, the first issue is that we need to pick the location so we can have everything ready to go,” Dean started. 

“It needs to be indoors though. The ground will just soak up the blood and doing it somewhere paved increases the risk of collateral damage, not to mention heaven’s light will be more dispersed outdoors. It needs to be a large open space though and somewhere secluded,” Gabriel explained. 

“Well there are plenty of abandoned warehouses around the world but they aren’t exactly secluded. Even in the worst areas there are still people around,” Sam told him. 

“Couldn’t you make a place?” Lisa suggested.

“I could, but how would we get her there? It would look a little suspicious,” Gabriel said. 

“Well she’s after you right? What if you made a place and made it look like somewhere you were going to live. She would think you just hadn’t had a chance to ward it yet and it would be like dangling candy in front of a baby,” Dean suggested after a long pause while they all considered the problem. 

“That could work,” Gabriel said. “It could look like a normal house on the outside, but inside it could be wide open. Hell I’ll just create a whole new island in the middle of the ocean to make sure no one gets caught up in it. She knows me well enough to believe that and I seriously doubt she knows that I already have an island.”

“Great. So we have a location and bait. Now how are we going to work it once she’s there?” Sam asked. 

“Well we’ll need to have the sigil ready when she gets there but covered up so she can’t see it until she’s in it,” Dean said. 

“Could you conceal it somehow?” Sam asked, concerned that covering it physically might interfere with it somehow.

“She would be able to see right through any illusion I put up,” Gabriel shook his head. 

They all thought for a long time. “What about the ceiling?” Sam asked, remembering the devils trap on Bobby’s ceiling. 

“Perfect,” Gabriel praised him. “We’d have to be careful to avoid drip, but that’s manageable.”

“Ok so we get the sigil in place, turn on the light and get Gabe powered up with the hand and just wait?” Dean clarified. 

“Sorry bucko. Not gonna be that easy. She would sense the light and the hand before she even got there and abort. We’ll have to rely on the sigil long enough for you two to say the spell and me to get powered up.”

“Will it hold her that long?” Sam asked worriedly. 

“We have to hope so. That’s why I wanted some strengthening spells. We can use them to make the sigil stronger,” Gabriel said. 

“I think that’s the perfect place to have a backup plan,” Sam pointed out. 

“I agree. Any ideas?” Gabriel asked the room. 

A while later it was Ben who had the first idea. “What does the sigil look like?” he asked first. Sam slid a piece of paper over to him and he looked over it for a minute. “Well if she’s the kind of person that walks around when she’s trapped would it be possible to make the first sigil really big and then a smaller one in the open area in the center so she can get trapped in that one too so if she breaks it she still has to get through the other one. Like the box in a box in a box prank.”

“That’s not a bad idea, Benji. It would at the least give us some more time to counter and at best she could get trapped again in the small one if she doesn’t realize what happened. Either way it still buys us time. Good job.” Ben beamed with pride. 

By the time they had the rest of the plans ironed out, it was lunchtime and Gabriel snapped up some lunch for everyone. After they had all eaten, Gabriel said, “Ok, I vote we take the rest of the day to relax and head out come morning.” He elected not to word it as saying your goodbyes just in case, but everyone got the gist of it anyway.


	25. Chapter 25

Sam pulled Gabriel to their room. There was something he wanted to talk to the archangel about before all this went down. Gabriel raised a curious eyebrow as he was pulled inside and Sam closed the door behind them. He could tell by the hunter’s demeanor that it wasn’t about sex. “Bond with me, Gabriel?” Sam asked hopefully. 

Gabriel sucked in a sharp breath. This was everything he’d ever wanted, but not like this. “This isn’t something that should be done out of fear, Sam.”

“It’s not about fear Gabriel. Not really. Your greatest fear is losing me, but I realized that my greatest fear is losing you too. Not Dean…you. When I realized that, it dawned on me that I do want forever with you. Not because of fear but because of you. Because of us. Live or die, we go together.”

“Sam…” Gabriel sighed. He knew this was a bad idea but he didn’t know if he had the strength to turn the hunter down if he insisted. 

Sam put his hands on the sides of Gabriel’s face and rested his forehead against the archangel’s. “Gabriel please. I can’t live without you any more than you can live without me. Don’t make me try.”

“You’re talking like we’re going to die tomorrow,” Gabriel pointed out. That was the biggest clue that it was fear talking. 

“Tomorrow, next week, a thousand years from now, I don’t care. I never want to live without you,” Sam said earnestly. He could see Gabriel softening to the idea so he piled a little more on. “I love you Gabriel. Until the end of time. No matter what. I want us to go into this fight and any that may come up in the future as one.”

Gabriel closed his eyes and tried to summon up the willpower to say no. He needed to say no. The only thing he could think of was, “What about your brother?” 

“He has Lisa and Ben now. He’ll be okay. And so will I as long as I have you,” Sam told him. 

And that was the end of Gabriel’s control. He couldn’t deny Sam any more. “Okay. If you’re sure.”

“I’m positive,” Sam sighed with relief, kissing Gabriel deeply. “So how does this work.”

“There are three parts to it; soul, body, and blood,” Gabriel explained. 

“Blood? You mean I’ll have to…” Sam trailed off nervously. 

“Don’t worry. Angel blood isn’t addictive like demon blood and even if it were I could clean you up from it again,” Gabriel told him. 

“Again? When did you…Wait…The church and the airplane…when Lucifer was released…that was you?” 

Gabriel rolled his eyes indulgently. “And I thought you were the smart one. I mean, I put Yosemite Sam and the devil on the plane’s entertainment system, for crying out loud. Did I have to dance naked in front of you and sing a song?”

Sam couldn’t help but laugh at that. Looking back, it was kind of obvious. “Might have helped,” Sam quipped. 

Gabriel laughed aloud. “I’ll remember that next time.”

“So I’m guessing the body part is sex,” Sam said trying to get the conversation back on track. 

“Obviously. So the way it usually works, I initiate the connection between your soul and my grace, we sleep together while exchanging blood, but we can do the blood and then sleep together if you’d rather,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam thought about it for a moment. It might be easier for him to take the blood if he was already lost in a haze of lust. “The usual way is good,” he decided. 

Gabriel snapped his fingers and they were both shirtless. He bit his lip as he looked up at Sam. “You’re absolutely sure about this?” he asked one last time. 

“Not a doubt in my mind,” Sam said evenly. 

Gabriel put his left hand over Sam’s heart and took Sam’s left hand and placed it over his own heart. “I understand this feels pretty strange at first,” he warned and when he got a nod from Sam, he closed his eyes and initiated the connection. 

Strange was an understatement. They felt like they were being pulled in two different directions by opposing forces. It wasn’t painful at all, or even uncomfortable. It was just disorienting. Sam wasn’t sure if he was Sam or Gabriel and Gabriel felt the same. Either way, the connection was pulling them together and as soon as their lips found each other’s it was like everything slotted into place. 

Sam’s hand moved up Gabriel’s chest to the back of his neck while the other arm wrapped around his back pulling him close, as Gabriel mirrored his actions. Neither of them had ever felt anything like this before. It was like coming home, but more. Maybe like finding the one place in the universe you truly belonged, but more than that even. All they knew was that they had found everything they didn’t even know their lives had been missing and it was nothing short of perfection. 

By the time they tumbled into the bed neither of them had the strength to hold back for long so Gabriel snapped shaky fingers and removed the remainder of their clothes, pulling Sam on top of him and wrapping his legs around the hunter’s waist. “Take me Sammy,” he murmured against Sam’s lips. Gabriel knew he could take it raw and unprepared, but it wouldn’t be so good for Sam that way. 

Sam didn’t need to be told twice as he lined himself up and plunged in as a whimpering moan was pulled from him. His hand tangled in Gabriel’s hair, pulling his head to the side as he started licking and kissing and nipping at the archangel’s neck. Gabriel was lifting his hips to meet Sam’s every thrust and as his pace picked up his nips starting getting a little more forceful, pulling gasping breaths from Gabriel. He had a bit of a biting fetish anyway. “Harder,” he breathed out as his own hand tangled in Sam’s hair holding his mouth tightly against his neck. 

The next bite broke the skin and as Gabriel’s blood flooded into the hunter’s mouth Sam gave a low growling moan as he started pounding harder and faster into Gabriel as he drank. Gabriel was nearly lost in the haze himself, but he had enough awareness to know that he needed to do his part too so he leaned his head down and bit into the hunter’s shoulder, taking some of Sam’s blood into his own mouth. Human blood wasn’t as intoxicating as angel blood so he took as much as he needed and then let his head fall back as Sam continued drinking greedily. 

Gabriel’s hand was still tight in Sam’s hair, holding him in place while the other gripped Sam’s back so tightly he was leaving scratches in his wake as they were both driven to heights never before imagined. Neither of them were capable of coherence as they moaned and whimpered and grunted and the pace of Sam’s thrusts increased and Gabriel met his pace every time, throwing his hips up and driving Sam deeper and deeper within him. 

Neither could even consider putting enough space between them to touch Gabriel, but the rubbing of Sam’s stomach against his hard cock was doing the job just fine and Gabriel knew he wasn’t far from coming. His hand tightened even more in Sam’s hair and his nails scratched new lines down the hunters back as he came with a strangled cry and Sam drove hard and deep one last time, the clenching around his length pulling his own release from him with a garbled moan. 

Gabriel somehow managed another snap of his shaking fingers to clean up the spilled blood so as not to offend Sam’s delicate sensibilities as he continued clutching the hunter as they trembled in their release and tried to catch their breaths, Sam now placing soft kisses to the archangel’s neck over the bite mark. 

Once he had the strength back to do so, Sam lifted his head and kissed Gabriel slow and deep, sliding slightly to the side, so that most of him was still draped over the archangel, but his full weight wasn’t on him. “That was…” Sam didn’t even have words. 

“Yeah,” Gabriel agreed breathlessly. 

Sam pressed another kiss to Gabriel’s lips before laying his head back down. When he did, he caught sight of something on Gabriel’s chest and lifted his head back up to look at it, before looking curiously at his own chest. There, just below his anti-possession symbol was the Enochian symbol that he could recognize as Gabriel’s name, in a dark gold color. He looked back at Gabriel’s chest to see the other Enochian symbol that he assumed was his name branded over the archangel’s heart in a warm brown. 

He smiled as he traced the symbol on Gabriel’s chest and Gabriel’s hand came up to run through Sam’s hair. “I love you so much, my Samshine,” he whispered as he channeled his grace to heal both the bite mark and the scratches. 

Sam leaned down and pressed a kiss to the symbol, and then to Gabriel’s lips before whispering, “And I love you, my perfect Gabriel. Always.”


	26. Chapter 26

Sam and Gabriel spent the rest of the day and night wrapped up in each other, Sam not falling asleep until the wee hours of the morning, wanting to milk the moment for everything it had and Gabriel stayed and watched him sleep right up until he sensed Lisa up and around. He needed to talk to her before they did this thing. He pressed a light kiss to Sam’s brow and decided to let him sleep. He needed to be as well rested as possible. He used his grace to make sure the hunter didn’t wake as he slid from the bed and snapped his fingers to dress himself. 

He slipped silently out of the room and headed for the kitchen where Lisa was already making coffee. “Good morning,” he said cheerfully. 

“Is it?” she asked skeptically. Her nerves were already getting the better of her and she wasn’t even going to be in on the fight. 

He inclined his head conceding her point. He wasn’t sure if what he had to say would make her feel better or worse, but it needed to be said. “Look I want you to know that if we don’t come back, I’m leaving everything you can use to you and Ben.”

“You’re what?” she asked nearly dropping her coffee. 

“If we’re not back in, say, a week, make for one of the safe houses. You’ll find all the documents you’ll need in your new names as well as deeds to the houses. You’ve already been added to my US bank accounts and your cards will be waiting for you there too,” he elaborated. 

“But…why?” 

“You’re the closest thing I have to family anymore and let’s face it, even if I did leave it to my real family they wouldn’t have the first idea what to do with any of it or have any need of it.”

“You think you won’t come back,” she said tears filling her eyes. 

“I think it’s a possibility. It’s a lot closer fight than I would like it to be. It could go either way. If we do go down though, we’ll do our best to take her with us,” he assured her. 

“Just…try not to go down,” she said pulling him into a tight hug. 

“We’ll do our best on that too,” he told her with a smile, wrapping his arms comfortingly around her. 

“Maybe…maybe we should wait more than a week,” she suggested. 

“There wouldn’t be any point. Last time I faced her, I was very near death when the boys pulled me out and it took less than a week before I was able to fly again, so even if she kicks our asses, if we are alive we will be here in less than a week. I’ll make it so that Dean’s phone will work from the island too so if he’s the only survivor he will be able to call you.”

“What about Sam’s?” she asked curiously, not missing the omission. 

“Sam and I bonded last night. If we die, we die together,” he told her and tears filled her eyes again as she nodded. After seeing the depth of their love in that cavern, she didn’t doubt that surviving the loss of the other would destroy either of them. “Let’s have an easy breakfast this morning so the smell of food doesn’t wake them. They need their rest for the main event,” Gabriel suggested and when Lisa agreed he snapped up some oatmeal and fruit salad for her and a milkshake and a slice of cake for himself. 

“That’s an easy breakfast?” she asked with a chuckle. 

“It doesn’t give off enough of a smell to wake the whole bunker like bacon and pancakes do,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

She just shook her head and started eating and they had a pleasant breakfast, not talking about the plans for the day or what was coming, just sharing fun stories from their pasts. Once they were done eating though, Gabriel headed back to Sam. He couldn’t stand to be away from him for very long. Not when their time together may be so limited. 

He slipped silently back into the room, the same way he had left and snapped his fingers removing his clothes again and settled back into Sam’s arms, sighing contentedly. It was an hour later before Sam woke and greeted his bonded with a kiss. Neither of them wanted to get up just yet though and they just lay there together for a while before they finally dragged themselves out of bed. 

Sam also had a small breakfast of oatmeal and fruit salad, as much because he didn’t think his stomach could handle one of Gabriel’s normal breakfasts with all the butterflies flying around in it. When Dean joined them after another hour, Sam turned to Gabriel and said, “Give us a minute?” 

Gabriel nodded and headed towards the library to start getting things together, which didn’t take long but it gave him something to do as he fiddled with everything, double checked all their spellwork and calculations, ordered and reordered the papers, and just did anything he could to keep himself busy. He wouldn’t show his nerves in front of anyone else, but he was just as much on edge as the rest of them. 

Once they were alone in the kitchen, Sam said, “Look. Dean. If I don’t make it today…”

“You’re gonna make it,” Dean said firmly, refusing to consider any other possibility. 

“But if I don’t…just listen,” he interrupted as Dean tried to speak again. “If I don’t, don’t try to bring me back. Go on. Live your life and be happy. Take care of Lisa and Ben and I’ll see you on the other side,” Sam finished. 

Dean swallowed around the lump in his throat. He should have known that request was coming, and as hard as it was, he knew he had to do just that. They had gotten into enough trouble trying to bring each other back from the brink. He wasn’t going to make another mistake like that. “Same goes for you, Sammy. Just…if you could look in on Lisa and Ben from time to time. Make sure they’re okay. I’d appreciate that.”

Sam nodded, willing his tears not to fall as he got up and pulled his brother into a tight embrace. “Here’s hoping neither of us have to live up to our promises.” 

“I can second that,” Dean said slapping Sam’s back as they pulled apart. 

Gabriel had left some more breakfast for Dean but he just went over and made some toast. Like Sam, he couldn’t stomach much this morning either. After he finished eating he found Sam and Gabriel in the library. “I’m gonna go wake Ben up and say goodbye,” he told them. 

“Yeah. We need him to help open the box anyway,” Gabriel reminded him. 

“Oh yeah. I forgot about that.” 

Lisa came in about that time, having been collecting herself in the other room. She heard Dean get up though and knew they would be leaving soon. He pulled her into a desperate kiss and rested his forehead against hers. “I love you Lis. Always.”

“I love you too, Dean,” she whispered and Dean pressed one more kiss to her brow and headed out to get Ben. 

They came back in a few minutes later, Ben still wiping the sleep from his eyes and they all gathered around the box, each of them putting a finger on it while Gabriel gave a chant and the lock popped. They would still keep the box closed until it was needed so that Amara wouldn’t be able to sense it through the warding though. 

Dean pulled Ben into a hug and said, “No matter what happens today, Ben, never forget that I love you. Always. Be good for your mother.”

“I love you too, Dad,” Ben said wiping the moisture from his eyes. 

When Dean stepped away and moved to say one more goodbye to Lisa, Gabriel went to Ben and pulled him into a hug too. “Never forget to have fun Benji.” 

Ben gave a sad smile as he sniffled. “I won’t Uncle Gabe.”

Sam was next with Ben, and he wasn’t sure if Dean had told the teenager what he was leaving him if they didn’t come back, but he said anyway, “Take good care of the car if we don’t come back.”

Ben didn’t have anything to say to that and just hugged him tighter. “Be careful, Uncle Sam. All of you.”

After Sam and Gabriel had both said goodbye to Lisa as well, Gabriel handed Sam the box and Dean the bucket of blood he’d collected and they disappeared. He would come back for the crystal once he had everything else ready. 

The three of them appeared, standing on the water in the middle of the ocean, and Dean couldn’t help the “awesome” that escaped. 

Gabriel chuckled as he snapped his fingers and land began growing beneath their feet. It only took about ten minutes for a small island to be formed. It was probably a quarter mile on all sides. Large enough that it wouldn’t look suspicious to Amara. Gabriel snapped his fingers again and what looked like a large house was standing in front of them. 

“Won’t she see this and come before we’re ready?” Sam asked nervously as they headed inside to start painting the sigils. 

“I’m hiding it for now. Well not technically hiding it, but not drawing attention to it. I’m keeping my power muffled, so unless she just happens to be watching this exact spot in the open ocean at just this moment, we’ll be good,” Gabriel explained. 

To make things easier for them he snapped his fingers and the sigil appeared on the ceiling. They would still have to apply the blood of course, but this gave them lines to follow, rather than trying to draw it fresh and risk mistakes. He used Ben’s idea of a sigil within a sigil and then snapped up three ladders separated the bucket of blood into three as well and they all started painting. 

That took about an hour and when it was done Gabriel disappeared and reappeared about five seconds later, huge chunk of quartz in tow. Dean had joked that it looked kinda like a dick with the large round bottom and a tall thinner piece standing straight up from it. Sam had once tried to count the sides of the center piece but kept losing count, there were too many. 

They handed out the spells and took their positions, Sam and Dean in front of the crystal, blocking most of it from view. They would have to say the heaven’s light spell from either side of it once she was trapped and Gabriel crouched next to the box, ready to grab the hand of god at the same time. “We ready?” Gabriel called. 

When he got twin nods, he let his power free, sending up a beacon that Amara couldn’t miss.


	27. Chapter 27

Gabriel had to suppress his smirk as Amara appeared exactly where they wanted her to. Right in the middle of the inside sigil. Seems that sometimes things could work out right. “Looks like I’ve caught you,” she said smugly. 

Gabriel wasn’t going to waste any time with witty repartee though and just nodded to the Winchesters who moved to the sides and started their spell on either side of the crystal while Gabriel popped the box, grabbed the hand of god and started his own chant to take the power into himself. 

“What are you doing?” she screeched. She was concerned about the hand of god but not overly so. It wouldn’t give him nearly enough power to take her on and he must be delusional to think it would. She tried to use her powers to throw them all to the side, but her powers fizzled a few feet away, so she tried to walk towards them, only to be stopped by the same wall that had stopped her powers. “What have you done to me?” she shrieked as she started throwing everything she could at the trap. 

She had just broken through the inner sigil when Gabriel finished his chant and had access to all the powers of the hand of god and causing his eyes to glow a bluish white and his hair to whip around with the power flowing through him. He quickly threw up a ward around the island to keep her from leaving once she broke the next set. He needed her out of the sigils before he could touch her, as they blocked anything destructive from both sides of the wall, but he hoped the boys would finish their spell before she did. 

Unfortunately, that hope was unfounded as she was finally able to fling him across the room. His new powers were enough to thankfully shield Sam and Dean from her next blow so that their casting wasn’t interrupted. “You fool!” she yelled. “Did you really think you could gain the power to destroy me?!”

As if on cue, the crystal lit up filling the room with heaven’s light and she shrank back from it, feeling her power leeching away. She tried to leave but found that she was blocked. So it would be a fight amongst equals then. That was okay. She had countless years in the void to do nothing but train for her revenge while the little archangel lived it up on earth. She would still win. 

Gabriel stumbled to his feet and threw another blast of power at her which she deflected and it came way too close to hitting Sam who had moved to his new position in the opposite corner from Dean as they traded off channeling strength spells towards Gabriel. 

The fight that followed was furious and consisted of blades, power, and physical blows and both brothers were in awe of the skill showed by both opponents. They knew that Gabriel would have more power than he’d ever had before but neither of them had any idea he could fight like that. There were more than a few bursts that hit the hunters but Gabriel was quick enough to at least minimize the damage. 

It went on for over an hour and both Sam and Dean could feel their voices starting to give out from the constant stream of spells. When Sam saw the light in Gabriel’s eyes starting to dim he passed nervous and went straight into downright terrified. They knew the power of the hand would be temporary, but they didn’t think it would wane this quickly. If Gabriel didn’t end this soon, they would all be done for. 

Gabriel apparently realized that too because he suddenly began fighting with renewed vigor. There was no need to try and pace himself anymore. It was time for an all or nothing strike. It took a moment to get her where he wanted her and he managed to ram his blade through her chest and throw a blast of power at her head at the same time she threw one at him and they both crumpled to the floor, unmoving. 

“Gabriel!” Sam cried running over to him and skidding on his knees to the archangel’s side. He knew Gabriel wasn’t dead because he was still alive, but knowing and believing are two different things. He sighed with partial relief when he saw the slow rise and fall of the archangel’s chest and felt the pulse beneath his fingers. 

Dean was still frozen in the corner. “Is he…” 

“He’s alive,” Sam told him. “Check her?” 

Dean managed to pull himself from the wall and went over to her to check for a pulse. As soon as his fingers touched her skin though she turned to ash. “Well that answers that question.” 

Dean winced as he sat on the floor, wishing they had thought to put furniture in here despite knowing that it never would have survived that spectacle. He and Sam were both banged up pretty bad from the glancing blows they’d been hit with, but it was nothing they couldn’t live with. “Tell me you know how to turn the damn light off again,” he said gesturing to the crystal. It was starting to hurt his eyes. 

Sam nodded and gave a short chant and it went out, leaving them both in pitch blackness as their eyes adjusted to the twilight. He wasn’t sure what time zone Gabriel had built this place in but it was apparently evening here now. “Why couldn’t turning it on be that short and easy?” Dean grumbled. 

“Because pulling power from heaven is complicated, but heaven happily takes it back,” Sam reasoned. 

“Still,” Dean said petulantly. “How is he?” he asked gesturing to Gabriel. 

“I have no idea,” Sam said worriedly. “He’s breathing and he has a pulse and I’m not seeing any obvious external damage, but who knows what condition his grace is in after that kind of power burst.”

Dean nodded, knowing that Sam was even more worried than he was and decided not to pester him with any more questions that he wouldn’t know the answers to anyway. “I should call Lisa. Let her know it’s over and we’re alive,” he said pulling out his phone. 

“Yeah. Good idea.”

“Hey Lis…it’s great to hear your voice too…yeah it’s over and we’re all alive…I know…me too…we’re a little banged up, but nothing bad, but Gabriel’s kinda out at the moment though so we might be stranded for a bit…yeah we’re set…yeah I’ll keep you updated…love you too.”

“I’m glad Gabriel took some extra time to set aside some provisions just in case,” Sam said. Unfortunately, neither of them had the strength or desire right now to go dig them up. They had to be underground in case the fight leveled the building which made sense and they had enough to last the three of them for two weeks and at the moment it was only the two of them so they would be okay. Dean had the bad feeling though that if Gabriel didn’t wake up soon that he was going to be digging alone. He knew that pulling Sam away from Gabriel’s side when he was like this was like pulling teeth and that was before they got together. He had no hope now. 

 

It turned out that his fear was founded, as a few hours later found him outside, digging alone, while Sam stayed firmly attached to Gabriel’s side. He had no intention of digging up the entire box and trying to lug it back with him. He just dug around the lid. He would gladly schlep out here to grab food and drinks when needed. He grabbed four sandwiches and a case of bottled water and headed back to the ‘house’. 

While he’d been gone, Sam had undone Gabriel’s shirt and pulled it to the side, checking to make sure he hadn’t missed any other injuries and Dean looked down and saw the sigil on his chest. “Never saw that before,” Dean said curiously. 

“It’s my name,” Sam said sadly. “I have one too.” He lifted his shirt to show Dean. “That’s Gabriel’s name.”

“When did you have that done…and why?” Dean couldn’t believe he had missed something like that. 

“Yesterday. They appeared after we bonded,” Sam told him. 

“You bonded?” Dean asked shocked. He wasn’t entirely sure what that meant but he could make a few educated guesses. “So you’re like married now?” 

“Essentially,” Sam told him. 

“And you didn’t tell me?” Dean asked, hurt. 

“I was going to…after all this. There wasn’t really time before,” Sam said with a shrug. He debated telling his brother about the other effects of the bond, but realized that until Gabriel woke up there was no way to know if would survive or not, so Dean needed to know what happened if he suddenly found them both dead. “If he…doesn’t make it…I’ll die too,” Sam told him and braced himself for the outburst. 

He was surprised when it didn’t come. All Dean said was, “He’ll make it.”


	28. Chapter 28

It was about a day after the fight ended when Gabriel groaned and opened his eyes. “Gabriel!” Sam exclaimed.

“Shh. Not so loud Samshine,” Gabriel said throwing his arm over his head. 

His yell had served on purpose though. It brought Dean running in from outside. “How are you feeling?” Sam asked concerned. 

“Oh just peachy, thanks,” Gabriel quipped. 

Sam grinned. If he was well enough to make jokes, then he would be just fine. “How are your powers?” he asked the next big question. 

“Drained at the moment. I should be good to get us back to the bunker in another day or two, but we’ll need to rest there for a few days before we move on.”

“That’s okay. Whatever you can do. You’ve only been out for a day so we’re still good on supplies. At least we don’t have to start rationing,” Dean chimed in. 

“Speaking of supplies Deano…if you wouldn’t mind…”

“Yeah yeah. I guess I’ll wait on you just this once,” Dean said turning and heading back to the chest to grab Gabriel what he knew he wanted. The case of Yoohoo and the candy bowl. 

By the time he got back, Sam was helping Gabriel to sit up against the wall. “You’re a life-saver,” he told Dean as he drained the first drink in one drag and opened another to sip as he munched on candy. “You’re hovering again, Sammykins,” he said good-naturedly as Sam kept trying to keep him from having to reach for anything and trying to keep him still. 

“Sorry,” Sam muttered sheepishly to which Gabriel responded by pulling him in for a kiss. 

When the kiss broke Gabriel held Sam’s head against his own. “We did it, Samshine.”

Sam smiled. “I never doubted you for a minute.”

“Liar,” Gabriel said amused. 

Sam chuckled and kissed him one more time before he sat down next to him. 

Dean rolled his eyes at them and pulled out his phone to call Lisa. “Hey Lis…we’re okay…Gabriel’s awake now…of course we asked him…if you’d stop interrupting I’d tell you,” he laughed. “We should be home in a day or two…okay hold on.” Dean held the phone out to Gabriel. “She wants to talk to you.”

“Hi Lisa…I’m fine…just a little drained…the power surge burnt me out for a bit…I will…see you soon,” he handed the phone back to Dean, who went outside to finish his call. “She hovers almost as bad as you,” he joked to Sam. 

“We hover because we care,” Sam said fondly. 

“That’s the only reason I haven’t smited you yet,” Gabriel said indulgently. Sam laughed loudly and leaned over to press a kiss to Gabriel’s temple. Gabriel decided to take the opportunity while they were alone to ask a question that had been worrying at him. “So you regret bonding to me now that we’ve survived?”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Not a chance, Gabriel. I told you. I’m in this forever. Besides, death wouldn’t have separated us anyway.”

“I know that, but that’s a rather hard concept for humans to grasp for some reason,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“I can grasp it just fine. And you’re mine for eternity. No second thoughts,” Sam assured him. 

They all learned a whole new level of boredom over the next day and a half, but thankfully Gabriel had enough interesting stories to keep them somewhat entertained. Once Gabriel was strong enough they gathered around and he transported the three of them to the bunker, this time landing in his and Sam’s room. Sam caught him before he hit the floor and helped him into bed. 

Dean immediately rushed out of the room and went to find Lisa and Ben. Sam looked torn for a moment before Gabriel said affectionately, “Get out and let me sleep.” 

Sam grinned and shook his head before leaning down for a kiss and heading out after Dean. He knew that he and Gabriel would only be here for a few more days, and he didn’t know if the others planned to leave right away or wait until they did, but he wanted to get some time with his brother’s family before they went their separate ways. Not to mention he planned on getting this place straightened up before they left. 

When he walked into the library looking for them though, he quickly realized that he wouldn’t need to do any cleaning up. Apparently Lisa had been bored while they had been gone. There was a folder in the center of the table that held all of their notes and all the books had been put back on the shelves. Sam didn’t bother checking to make sure they were all in the right place because he didn’t really care. He just smiled and headed out of the library. 

He found them in the living room, Lisa and Dean curled up on the couch and Ben in one of the chairs as they watched a movie. Lisa looked up as he came in. “How’s Gabriel?” she asked as Sam settled in the other chair. 

“He’s okay. Just exhausted. He’s sleeping now,” Sam told her. 

She gave a relieved nod. “Are you still planning to lock this place up and head to your island?” she asked him. 

“Yeah. It’ll take Gabriel a few more days to be able to travel again, but once he’s well enough the bunker’s going back into mothballs.” Sam suddenly got an idea. There was still over a month left of Ben’s summer holidays. “I’m sure he’d be happy to have you guys spend a few weeks at the island with us before you head off to your new home.”

She looked hopefully at Dean. “What do you think?” She’d never been to a tropical island before and knowing Gabriel it would really be something. 

Ben took no time in making his preference known. “Can we dad? Please?” 

Dean rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “I suppose,” he drawled. 

After a good fourteen-hour sleep, Gabriel was up and around again, but his powers were still recovering. Sam told him about his offer to the others and he was glad that Gabriel seemed pleased about it. The way Gabriel saw it, he would have forever with Sam. His time with the rest of their family would be limited by their life-spans so he was happy to have them around whenever. 

When Gabriel was well enough to transport them a few days later, they all appeared in the master bedroom and Sam had to, once again, catch Gabriel before he fell over. “Go to sleep Gabe. I’m sure we’ll find our way around just fine.”

“Just stay out of the basement,” he warned as they left the room. He would show Sam what was down there once he was recovered, but the rest didn’t need to see it. 

They didn’t explore the house too much beyond finding bedrooms to put their bags in. They were all glad that Gabriel had thought to include swimsuits when he replaced Lisa and Ben’s wardrobes and they quickly changed into them. Dean and Sam had no problems swimming in their boxers. They covered the same as swim trunks anyway. 

Once their stuff was stowed they all headed out to the beach. It was an instant hit with everyone except for Dean who just bitched about the sand getting everywhere. It didn’t surprise Sam any. He’d done the same thing on the rare occasions they’d gotten to go to a beach when they were kids too. 

They ended up having a late dinner as they stayed on the beach until the sun set before trudging into the house. Thankfully, Gabriel kept the house well stocked with food, though Sam guessed he had used some powers to make some of the stuff not spoil. He knew for a fact that Gabriel hadn’t been here in at least three weeks and the milk was still good. 

Gabriel was up and around again the next day, but it was two weeks before he started using his powers for more than the bare minimum again. The prank war that took place once he did was one for the history books in which the four humans teamed up against the archangel and got creamed…literally. 

Gabriel took Lisa, Dean, and Ben to their new house, Impala in tow, two weeks before Ben was supposed to start school. He told them they could keep the bank accounts and everything in the house was theirs now. He had numerous accounts all over the world and he could always transfer some money to a new US account if he needed to. He knew they would need money to get set up and started at least, and it’s not like he couldn’t spare it. 

They tried to protest, but he just waved the off, and practically had to force them to accept it. They finally compromised and agreed to use it to get set up but once they found jobs they wouldn’t touch any more. Gabriel only agreed if they agreed not to short themselves until then, meaning Lisa and Ben needed cars and they weren’t to skimp on anything else they might need. 

Over the next few decades, the ‘Simmons family’ were regular visitors to Gabriel and Sam’s island paradise in the summers. Often spending a month or more there. Dean never stopped bitching about the sand, but everyone just ignored him anyway. It was difficult for Sam to watch them get old and die, but Gabriel was pretty much used to it. That’s not to say it was easy for him, but he handled it much better than Sam. 

It was about ten years after Ben’s death that Gabriel cornered Sam on the beach one day. “So Sammy. What do you say to having a couple kids to chase around after?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is the end. I'm going to be cutting down on my fanfiction writing and focusing on an original novel that I've been meaning to write for a long time. I'll still be writing on here some, just not as often and I'll probably finish a story before I post it so you guys don't get stuck waiting days or longer for an update when I get sidetracked. Wish me luck :) Love you all.


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